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A Novel
by Patmeena Sabit
Zorah Sharaf could do no wrong. Zorah Sharaf brought shame upon her family.
What's the truth? Depends on who you ask.
After fleeing a war-torn Afghanistan, the Sharaf family resettles as refugees in Northern Virginia. After many years of hard work, the father has become a successful businessman. Now they live in the most exclusive neighborhood, their growing family attending the most prestigious schools. Zorah, the eldest daughter, is the apple of her father's eye.
When an unthinkable tragedy strikes, everyone is left reeling and the family is thrust into the court of public opinion. There is talk that behind closed doors the Sharafs' happy household was anything but. Did the Sharaf family achieve the American Dream? Or was the image of the model immigrant family just a façade?
A kaleidoscopic, urgent narrative, told through the perspectives of those who know the family best, and those who only think they do, Good People is a riveting, provocative, and unforgettable story of community, family, and identity in our increasingly divided times.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (6/11/2026)
...time to fully develop the story. Next I read The First Time I Saw Him by Laura Dave. Not terrible for a sequel but more of the same. Now I'm reading Good People by Patmeena Sabit. Finally a book I can sink my teeth into. I'm 3/4s of the way through it.
-Sharon_G
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (2/12/2026)
I finished The Lioness of Boston and The Secret Book Society. I just started Good People by Patmeena Sabit and Verity & Perpetua (written by a local Maine author, Agnes Bushell). I'm also listening to The Bookbinder's Secret.
-Sandy_G
"Sabit's first novel masterfully dissects the glittering facade of the American Dream...This all unfolds like a binge-worthy true-crime podcast...It's voyeuristic and intimate, pulling readers into the fray as if huddled around a kitchen table, trading secrets over chai. At once heartbreaking and hypnotic, Sabit's is a novel that demands to be devoured." —Booklist (starred review)
"The first great novel of 2026 is here... It's riveting stuff, in part because the picture of the Sharafs is so complex." —Star Tribune
"Brilliant. The best debut I've read in a very long time." —Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane and Love Marriage
"Good People is equal parts an immigrant novel, a tightly wound mystery, and an oral history. Patmeena Sabit moves between these with insight, ease, and grace to give us a remarkable, unsettling snapshot of our complicated times." —Sameer Pandya, author of Our Beautiful Boys
This information about Good People 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.
Patmeena Sabit was born in Kabul a few years after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When she was a month old, her family fled the conflict and became refugees in Pakistan, joining the millions of other Afghans that had sought refuge there. They later moved to the United States and she grew up in Virginia. She currently lives in Toronto.
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