Sohrab Homi Fracis's debut novel Go Home is the story of a Parsi foreign student in Delaware, who in the turbulent wake of the Iran hostage crisis can't distinguish his redneck oppressors from his Deadhead neighbors. Fracis's first book, the story collection Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America (University of Iowa Press) won the Iowa Short Fiction Award. About Go Home, National Book Award winner Bob Shacochis writes: "At the heart of Sohrab Homi Fracis's poignant new novel, Go Home, is the question of one's place in the world, the answer never more ambiguous or fragile than for the immigrant or exile, when a person's condition of homelessness is in transition, neither here nor there. Given the cultural moment, I'm grateful to Fracis for his highly topical reexamination of the American Dream, a still reliable but never easy remedy for all those yearning to reinvent themselves beyond the constrictions of tribe and nation. And in Go Home, assimilation, sometimes a wretched exercise, can also be a hilarious and uplifting affair."
About the Author
SOHRAB HOMI FRACIS is the winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award, juried by the legendary Iowa Writers' Workshop, for his collection, Ticket to Minto: Stories of India and America. It was re-published in India and Germany. He was Visiting Writer in Residence at Augsburg College and Artist in Residence at Yaddo. Publishers Weekly said his stories "reflect a wide range of influences-from the somber realism of Somerset Maugham to the hip, colloquial humor of Junot Diaz."
Advance Praise for Go Home
"At the heart of Sohrab Homi Fracis's poignant new novel, Go Home, is the question of one's place in the world, the answer never more ambiguous or fragile than for the immigrant or exile, when a person's condition of homelessness is in transition, neither here nor there. Given the cultural moment, I'm grateful to Fracis for his highly topical reexamination of the American Dream, a still reliable but never easy remedy for all those yearning to reinvent themselves beyond the constrictions of tribe and nation. And in Go Home, assimilation, sometimes a wretched exercise, can also be a hilarious and uplifting affair."
- Bob Shacochis, author of The Woman Who Lost Her Soul (Dayton Literary Peace Prize) and Easy in the Islands (National Book Award)
"I read Go Home with great pleasure and lots of empathy for the displaced and somewhat mystified but always lovable Viraf and his misadventures in America. The author's (and Viraf's) powers of observation as well as the period he covers - Deadheads and Pintos, great fun - are distinctive qualities of his engrossing account of the immigrant experience."
- Diane Johnson, author of Le Divorce, Persian Nights, co-scriptwriter of The Shining
"Go Home is the story of one man's journey to build a cultural bridge across continents, crossing waters that are unsettling and unsafe. While Fracis sets the novel during one of the most turbulent decades in both India's and the United States' history, his writing also offers insight in today's tense climate. Beautiful prose, wise and witty."
- Susan Muaddi Darraj, author of A Curious Land (AWP Grace Paley Prize, American Book Award) and The Inheritance of Exile
"This is a beautiful novel about leaving home and moving to America, old world to new, and the courageous spirit of beginning a new life. With his accurate eye and marmalade-like descriptions, Sohrab Fracis's characters come alive. Go Home fulfills the promise of his Iowa Short Fiction Award."
- Deepak Singh, commentator for NPR, BBC, and author of How May I Help You? An Immigrant's Journey from MBA to Minimum Wage