Excerpt from A Good Country by Laleh Khadivi, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

One person pulled out a baggie and the other had the papers and the other had a Zippo and each of them had already done it a dozen times or more and Rez squinted into the cool wind and waited his turn. The joint came by lumpy and crooked and he held it between his fingers and then between his lips and all he felt was fuck. I don't give a fuck. Fuck him. He remembered not to breath too deep. He didn't want to choke and didn't want them to laugh. But it was smooth. Smoother than he could understand, and the cold came in with it and he exhaled into the crossed legs of his lap. The apostles looked at him and he nodded without a cough and they smiled one big friend smile.

Yeah, dude. Yeah.

He sat up straight, stretched his back, realigned into another person in another life, and grinned.

Yeah. Totally.

Excerpted from A Good Country by Laleh Khadivi. Copyright © 2017 by Laleh Khadivi. Excerpted by permission of Bloomsbury USA. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.