Everything Sad is Untrue cover art

Everything Sad is Untrue

(a true story)

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Everything Sad is Untrue

By: Daniel Nayeri
Narrated by: Daniel Nayeri
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $26.99

Buy Now for $26.99

About this listen

 At the front of a middle school classroom in Oklahoma, a boy named Khosrou (whom everyone calls "Daniel") stands, trying to tell a story. His story. But no one believes a word he says. To them he is a dark-skinned, hairy-armed boy with a big butt whose lunch smells funny; who makes things up and talks about poop too much. But Khosrou's stories, stretching back years, and decades, and centuries, are beautiful, and terrifying, from the
moment his family fled Iran in the middle of the night with the secret police moments behind them, back to the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy...and further back to the fieldsnear the river Aras, where rain-soaked flowers
bled red like the yolk of the sunset had burst over everything, and further back still to the jasmine-scented city of Isfahan. Like Scheherazade in a hostile classroom, Daniel weaves a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth. And it is (a true story). Biographical Fiction Fiction Growing Up Growing Up & Facts of Life Historical Fiction Literature & Fiction Multigenerational Family Biography Funny
All stars
Most relevant
The best book I’ve enjoyed in some time. I can’t describe the interesting way the story is in narrated in the first person talking to both the reader and the author’s teacher in the form or written expositions. A combination of personal stories, family history and Persian fables are woven together to create an amazing and personal depiction of a young immigrants journey.

Perfect for middle school classrooms

Amazing Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story is well read and gives powerful insight into the extraordinary life experiences of an ordinary boy. I want to listen to it again.

Powerful and unexpected

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This story within stories was told with sagacious wit, a whimsical depth of emotions, and a razor-sharp toothcomb for the truth. I have rarely been so moved by a real-life narrative.

Moving memoir of trauma and beauty

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.