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A Novel
by Susan Azim Boyer
Two half-siblings who have never met embark on a search together for the Iranian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran father they never knew.
Samira Murphy will do anything to keep her fractured family from falling apart, including caring for her widowed grandmother and getting her older brother into recovery for alcohol addiction. With attendance at her dream college on the line, she takes a long shot DNA test to find the support she so desperately needs from a father she hasn't seen since she was a baby.
Henry Owen is torn between his well-meaning but unreliable bio-mom and his overly strict aunt and uncle, who stepped in to raise him but don't seem to see him for who he is. Looking to forge a stronger connection to his own identity, he takes a DNA test to find the one person who might love him for exactly who he is—the biological father he never knew.
Instead of a DNA match with their father, Samira and Henry are matched with each other. They begin to search for their father together and slowly unravel the difficult truth of their shared past, forming a connection that only siblings can have and recovering precious parts of their past that have been lost. Brimming with emotional resonance, Susan Azim Boyer's The Search for Us beautifully renders what it means to find your place in the world through the deep and abiding power of family.
"Relatable, poignant, and full of hope." ―Kirkus Reviews
"Boyer sensitively explores the complexities of identity, family, and responsibility in a plot fueled by a compelling search for answers and healing." ―Booklist
"Boyer handles such heavy themes as absent parents, cultural repression, and substance abuse with sensitivity and humor, making this heartwarming, illuminating story about siblings and identity a well-crafted, engaging one." ―Shelf Awareness
"A heartfelt and poignant quest for self-discovery by an author to watch. Readers will relate deeply to both siblings, whose dual narratives describe complicated familial bonds with nuance and compassion as they seek out their estranged father. At once deeply tender, authentically messy, and ultimately brimming with hope, The Search for Us will captivate till the last page." ―Priyanka Taslim, author of The Love Match
"A beautiful showcase of how families―in all their many shapes and sizes―can be their own special type of love story." ―Charlene Thomas, author of Seton Girls
"Riveting, heart-wrenching, and ultimately hopeful, The Search for Us beautifully explores the ways our roots shape us―and the power we have to shape ourselves." ―Maya Prasad, author of Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things, a Children's Book Council Young Adult and Librarian Favorite of 2023
This information about The Search for Us 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.
Susan Azim Boyer (she/her), author of Jasmine Zumideh Needs a Win, writes young adult fiction featuring Iranian American heroines she *never* encountered growing up, who make messy, complicated choices that rapidly snowball into avalanches. She hails from Nebraska but grew up in Los Angeles before spending several years in San Francisco and the next twenty in Sonoma County. She now lives in the Coachella Valley with her husband, Wayne, and her Pug mix, Teddy. Their son, Alec, lives in New York.
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