The Friend Seekers

A poignant and timely collection about friendship, community, identity and belonging for readers of Lorrie Moore, Lydia Davis and Britt Bennett 

Siamak Vossoughi’s new short story collection, The Friend Seekers is a tender yet sharp collection of stories. A stranger learns how to adapt to a new town as an Iranian-American who is regularly asked if he’s on the “right side,” a family struggles with the death of a loved one at a store shooting, and a small girl contemplates the meaning of friendship and encourages her Baba to find one. These are stories of yearning and coming-of-age, of identity and what it means to Iranian and American amidst the ever-widening cultural divide. Even the most unlikeable characters are hard to hate under Vossoughi’s pen as he prioritizes humanity in even the most difficult moments on the page. These taught, singular stories are disarming in their simplicity, but radical in their call to be a different kind of neighbor, citizen, and friend.