I think that every star
Shines a different amount,
Because to them
They are the brightest thing in their world.
To them, they are enough. Their shine is enough.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
ON JANUARY 27, 2017, the Muslim Ban was signed into law via executive order. I remember traveling to Denver International Airport the next day to protest, joining hundreds of other Coloradans as we stood in support of an Iranian family who was being unjustly detained despite having a legal visa. A call for Farsi translators went out, saying the family was having trouble communicating with the DHS and CBP agents. I remember the feeling of knowing my Farsi was not good enough to help that poor family, and I drove home stewing in feelings of anger, fear, and shame.
I write this on the day the Muslim Ban was rescinded. But we will never forget the families that were torn apart, the students who couldn’t attend the universities that accepted them, and the hate and vitriol the United States was sanctioned to spew.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
THIS BOOK WOULD not have been possible without my agent, Jim McCarthy. I am so grateful for your lightning-fast responses, hand-holding, and negotiating on my behalf. You and the team at Dystel, Goderich, and Bourret are simply The Best.
Huge thank-you to my editor, Stacey Barney. You have made this such a stronger (and funnier!) book. I’m so grateful you took a chance on Parvin.
Big thanks to Caitlin Tutterow, who I would walk through fire with, or a Zoom call about Farsi translation (same thing), anytime.
Thank you to my publisher Jennifer Klonsky at G. P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for supporting my weird little book. Khayley mamnoon to Samira Iravani for such a gorgeous cover and to Jasmine Moshiri for not only modeling but taking her own photos in the middle of a pandemic.
To Kate Heidinger, the very first person to set eyes on this manuscript, you truly are ride or die. I would go to Costco and buy you Hot Cheetos in bulk anytime. Back when this book was just a forty-thousand-word lump of Google Docs, I hired the incredible Kate Racculia to help me polish my manuscript and get an agent. It worked! You can hire her at kateracculia.com.
Thank you to Romy Natalia Goldberg, Viniyanka Prasad, Axie Oh, Ben Dwork, and Tina Ehsanipour, the best critique partners a girl could ever ask for. Massive thank-you to Brenna Yovanoff for reading Parvin and walking me through the entire publication process. Gracias a mi primo Andrés Proaño Mattioli y mi cuate Pablo Aron. Thank you, Kit Song, for the excellent soybean joke.
Thanks to the team at Penguin for making this such a wonderful experience. Cindy Howle, Anne Heausler, Chandra Wohleber, Ariela Rudy Zaltzman, and Yekta Khaghani: I am so grateful. There is nothing more satisfying than reading your copyeditor’s comments and seeing the reluctant “lol” peppered in there along with the reminder that you don’t, in fact, speak English properly. I still have no idea how commas work.
Thank you to Felicity Vallence, James Akinaka, Shannon Spann, Kara Brammer, Lathea Mondesir, and Suki Boynton. I could not be in better hands. And speaking of hands, thank you, Natalie Vimont, for fixing mine when they didn’t work anymore.
Enormous thank-you to my mother for always supporting me and for teaching me to be such an enthusiastic reader. My father helped me write the poem at the end in Farsi—merci, Baba. The biggest thank-you of all goes to my husband for encouraging me to pursue my writing career and helping me get this far.
To the people reading this: thank you for giving this book a chance. All my life I was told I could never be a writer. The fact that you stuck with me this far means the world.
Lastly, thank you to my daughter. I wrote this book before you were even conceived, and the dedication long before that. It’s looking like your dad’s genes have won the war, so here we are, three generations of mothers and daughters who look nothing like each other. May this book be a mirror in times of loneliness and a testament to why you will always be enough. I love you so much.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
OLIVIA ABTAHI is a writer and filmmaker born in Washington, DC. When she isn't drafting novels about awkward teens, you can find her working on documentaries about social justice and climate equity. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado, with her husband and daughter. According to Olivia's senior year bassoon teacher, she was "the worst first-chair bassoonist in Northern Virginia."
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