A novel about an immigrant family living the American dream-and the daughter whose death raises questions about just how American they really want to become.
Gorgeous and powerful ... They say reading is dying, and maybe it is. But works like this one will ensure there will always be a place for what novels alone can achieve.
A month into the year, the first great novel of 2026 is here ... It’s riveting stuff, in part because the picture of the Sharafs is so complex as readers try to assemble the dozens of narrators’ accounts into a whole picture.
Accomplished ... Sabit skillfully inhabits the voices of Rahmat’s acquaintances in the Afghan community, his Virginia neighbors and the eyewitnesses of events leading up to Zorah’s demise. The composite picture is contradictory, reflecting the complexities of a family living the American dream but still tied to the customs of their people and their faith ... Since we are not privy to the perspectives of any of the Sharafs, there is a somewhat frustrating hole at the center of Good People. This intelligent novel is instead interested in the effects of gossip, bias and assumptions, and the ways that a single set of facts can be used to construct completely different conclusions.
