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Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America
by Navied Mahdavian
A gorgeously illustrated and written debut graphic memoir about belonging, identity, and making a home in the remote American West, by New Yorker cartoonist Navied Mahdavian.
Before Navied Mahdavian moved with his wife and dog in November of 2016 from San Francisco to an off-the-grid cabin in rural Idaho, he had never fished, gardened, hiked, hunted, or lived in a snowy place. But there, he could own land, realize his dream of being an artist, and start a family—the Millennial dream. Over the next three years, Mahdavian leaned into the wonders of the natural Idaho landscape and found himself adjusting to and enjoying a slower pace of living. But beyond the boundaries of his six acres, he was confronted with the realities of America's political shifts and forced to confront the question: Do I belong here?
Mahdavian's beautifully written and unflinchingly honest graphic memoir charts his growth and struggles as an artist, citizen, and new father. It celebrates his love of place and honors the relationships he makes in rural America, touching on dynamics like culture, environment, and identity in America, and even articulating difficult moments of racism and brutality he found there as a Middle Eastern American. With wit, compassion, and a sense of humor, Mahdavian's insider perspective offers a unique portrait of one of the most remote and wild areas of the American West.
"A beautifully drawn memoir full of humor, intelligence, and sensitivity." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[A] charming, meditative graphic memoir...This exceptional debut is a sublime self-examination that's perfect for fans of Yeon-sik Hong's Uncomfortably Happy or Eleanor Davis's The Hard Tomorrow." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"This is a charming, hilarious, and at times frightening memoir about the years Navied and Emelie (and their dog, Stanley) Mahdavian spent building a home in remote Idaho after being pushed out of the San Francisco Bay area…This will appeal to readers of memoir, social commentary, and, in a minor spoiler, graphic medicine." —Booklist (starred review)
Why did urban, vegetarian, gun-wary Navied, of Iranian descent, have the big, bright idea to move with his wife to the frigid mountains of Idaho, months before Trump's election? Riveting, searching, complex and, oh, hilarious, this memoir ultimately is a quest for strength, wildness, and love, for a deeper vision of all things Earth. Surely this is my favorite graphic memoir I've read in years.
―Deb Olin Unferth, author, Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War
"Enamored of nature and dazzled by fantasies of the rugged west, a young mixed-race couple build a tiny home in the wilds of Idaho―and must confront an America at odds with itself. In This Country, Mahdavian explores today's cultural divide with a keen eye and a graceful touch. The resulting portrait is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, elegant and complex, brutal and tender. I dare you not to fall in love."
―Alia Volz, author, Home Baked: Marijuana, My Mother and the Stoning of San Francisco
This Country is a hilarious and sometimes harrowing graphic memoir about the Mahdavians' quest to live self-sufficiently in rural Idaho. Learning how to cut down a tree to heat your own house and grow your own vegetables is only one part of it....Wonderful drawings and beautiful writing make this book a great read.
―Roz Chast, author and cartoonist, Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?
"I knew Navied Mahdavian was one of the funniest cartoonists of his generation; This Country proves he is also one of its most subtle and sophisticated graphic storytellers. In Navied's hands, comics feel like poetry. Perfect ink drawings bring land, beast, and human, with all their delicacy and yearning, viscerally to life. This Country, a quintessential story of seeking a home in America and (maybe) finding it, and made me want to grant my own surroundings the grace, humor, and dignity of Navied's observant study."
―Amy Kurzweil, cartoonist and author, Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir
This information about This Country was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Navied Mahdavian has been a contributing cartoonist at the New Yorker since 2018. His work has also been published in Reader's Digest, Wired, and Alta Online and the books The Rejection Collection and Send Help! Before becoming a cartoonist, he taught the fifth grade, where he learned most of his jokes. Mahdavian was born in Miami and lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.
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