Home Is a Stranger

The daughter of a Jewish mother and a Muslim father, Parnaz fled persecution in Iran as a young girl and grew up an immigrant in Los Angeles. Nineteen years later, after the death of her father and a frightening diagnosis for herself, she decides rekindling her shattered spirit is more important to her than undergoing open-heart surgery. She returns to her homeland, this time as a stranger. Home Is a Stranger is a memoir about transcending boundaries and the meaning of hospitality--not only in the sense of welcoming others into our lives but also of remaining open to the world in the wake of loss.