Ali the Iraqi

This novel begins with the true story of a boy named Ali, an Iraqi refugee, who ran away from his exchange program. But quickly, the novel dissolves into speculation, fantasies, and recreations of what cannot be known. Two years after Ali's escape, he is reunited with his host family. And Paul, Ali's host brother, begins to gather stories from Ali at night in an attempt to recreate Ali’s journey of running away into America—everything from living homeless in the mountains to being taken in by an eclectic group of college students living as guests in the house of a disillusioned philanthropist. Paul tries to understand the life of his new brother. But it is a precipice. To step off could be his undoing. 

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A strikingly original and ambitious debut novel, full of luminous prose and sensitive characters. Crossing worlds, religions, and languages, Ali reveals how hearts can be stitched and restitched together despite tragedy and misunderstanding and does so with humor, wisdom and deep empathy.

—Zachary Davis, Faith Matters Foundation