Book Review: The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams
The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams by Daniel Nayeri, illustrated by Daniel Miyares (Levine Querido, 2023).
“The first time I was stoned to death by an angry mob, I was not even a criminal.”
So the young protagonist of Daniel Nayeri’s new novel begins his story. And when we first meet him, he’s indeed on the run from a group of angry monks armed with rocks. But then a stout, silver-tongued merchant named Samir steps in and changes the boy’s life forever.
Not that the boy is happy about it, at first.
If you read Daniel Nayeri’s previous novel, Everything Sad Is Untrue, you already know what a powerful storyteller he is. A couple of years ago, that book hit the scene with the force of an atom bomb. It won awards and fans everywhere—at one time, it seemed like nearly all my friends and acquaintances were reading it. And as I found when I read it myself, it’s one of those books that fully lives up to the hype. An autobiographical novel about Nayeri’s childhood flight to America from Iran with his mother and sister, Everything Sad Is Untrue is a poignant, brilliantly told story full of heart, faith, and hope (not to mention a sizable dose of bathroom humor!).
With such a big act to follow, Nayeri has wisely found ways to make his new novel both similar to and different from the last one. Like the previous book, The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams is marketed to a middle-grade audience, but makes great reading for any age. And like the previous book, this one is full of marvelous Middle Eastern tales of adventure and intrigue.
But unlike Everything Sad Is Untrue, this book isn’t grounded in the present day. It’s set entirely in the late 11th century, and dominated by Samir, a trickster of almost mythical proportions. The merchant never met a situation he couldn’t talk his way out of, or a customer he couldn’t con … or so it seems.
Our young hero, whom Samir dubs “Monkey” after rescuing him, tells us right up front that he feels nothing but disgust for Samir and his slippery ways. But part of the fun of the book is learning to read between the lines and tease out the truth about the slowly growing friendship between the cynical boy and the smooth-talking merchant.
In fact, the more we read of Monkey’s twisty narration, the more we wonder whether we might be dealing with two tricksters rather than just one. As they pursue what Samir calls “the merchant’s crown” along the Silk Road through the Taklamakan Desert, while trying to elude pursuit themselves, we have to figure out what’s true about Monkey’s colorful tales, and what he might be holding back from us—and why.
Enhanced by Daniel Miyares’s vivid illustrations, The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams is a feast for the eyes and the imagination. If it doesn’t tug at the heartstrings quite as hard as Everything Sad Is Untrue did, it’s nonetheless a life-affirming and thoroughly entertaining read.
Book Links:
The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams on Amazon
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