Bound To Stay Bound

Booklist - 10/01/2025 *Starred Review* To keep from being separated, orphaned sibs Babak and Sana pack up their few possessions—including the portable blackboard their beloved father, an itinerant reading teacher—had left behind, and set out from Isfahan for the Zagros Mountains in hopes of passing themselves off as his successors to the nomadic herders he had taught there. Choosing as setting a neutral country far from the main theaters of WWII (but occupied in 1941 by both Russian and British troops determined to shield its strategic oil fields from the Nazis), Nayeri rolls out a tale in which severe hardship and the ever-present potential for violence are counterbalanced by lighter moments, such as Babak’s clever efforts to tease a band of wayward nomad children (and perhaps a few readers) into learning the Persian alphabet or the way his eight-year-old little sister, wise beyond her years, consistently out-talks and out-thinks him. The two make a winning pair, and for all their tragic backstories, the author maintains an upbeat tone throughout. Just for good measure, he adds a cinematic subplot involving a secretive young Polish refugee with a scary German agent hot on his heels and rounds out the adventure by filling in the historical background with a map and a substantial afterword. - Copyright 2025 Booklist.