An Iranian girl escapes to America as a child, but her father stays behind. Over twenty years, as she grows from confused immigrant to overachieving Westerner to sophisticated European, daughter and father know each other only from their rare visits. The longer they are apart, the more their lives diverge, but also the more each comes to need the other's wisdom and, ultimately, rescue. Meanwhile, refugees of all nationalities are flowing into Europe under troubling conditions. Wanting to help, but also looking for a lost sense of home, our grown-up transplant finds herself quickly entranced by a world that is at once everything she has missed and nothing that she has ever known. Will her immersion in the lives of these new refugees allow her the grace to save her father?
Beautifully written, full of insight, charm, and humor, Refuge ultimately asks- Must home always be a physical place, or can we find it in another person?