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FINALIST FOR THE 2022 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR FICTION

A luminous new collection of stories from a young writer who has brought his cultures rich history mythology and lyricism to American letters Sandra Cisneros

Pen/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters moving between modernday Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in America In these arresting stories verging on both comedy and tragedy often starring young characters whose bravado is matched by their tenderness Kochai once again captures a singular resonant voice an American teenager raised by Old World Afghan storytellers

In Playing Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain a young mans video game experience turns into a surreal exploration on his own fathers memories of war and occupation Set in Kabul Return to Sender follows two married doctors driven by guilt to leave the US and care for their fellow Afghans even when their own son disappears A college student in the US in Hungry Ricky Daddy starves himself in protest of Israeli violence against Palestine And in the title story The Haunting of Hajji Hotak we learn the story of a man codenamed Hajji from the perspective of a government surveillance worker who becomes entrenched in the immigrant familys life

The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving exploration of characters grappling with the ghosts of war and displacementand one that speaks to the immediate political landscape we reckon with today

The New York Times Book Review