Home Is a Stranger

The daughter of a Jewish mother and Muslim father, Parnaz fled persecution in Iran as a young girl and moved to Los Angeles. She became a bold young woman who "feels too much"--but the world is hard on young women like that. After the death of her father and a frightening diagnosis for herself, she chooses to rekindle her shattered spirit rather than undergo open-heart surgery. She returns to her homeland, this time as a stranger. Part contemporary travelogue, part meditation on living with illness, Home Is a Stranger captures one prodigal daughter's quest for belonging in Iran, nineteen years after leaving it.