Porochista Khakpour

Utterly original and compelling, Porochista Khakpour’s The Last Illusion weaves Iranian myth with very contemporary American neurosis to create a bittersweet poetry all its own. This ambitious, exciting literary adventure is at once grotesque, amusing, deeply sad—and wonderful, too.

The Last Illusion deftly, unexpectedly, blends Persian myth with modern life, and with the perils and pleasures of magic. In a gripping, sinuous, sometimes explosive voice, Porochista Khakpour tells us a story like no other..

The Last Illusion is a book full of hard-fought wonders, harsh and yet full of grace, with a touch of myth, and an abundance of love. A haunting novel that lingers long after the last page.

Magical and hysterical, each sentence more beautiful than the next, The Last Illusion proves Khakpour a novelist-dazzler on the magnitude of an Aimee Bender or a Jonathan Lethem.

Khakpour’s elegant, mysterious,  hilarious novel contains the most intriguing and inventive  collection of heartbreaking characters you’ll ever meet: a mystic in  search of a religion, a magician with only one trick, and of course, Zal, the feral boy who just might be  a bird. Powerful, passionate, essential work!

Funny and haunting, bridges  the distance between ancient myth and the modern world. As  much a coming-of-age story as it is a clear-eyed account of our contemporary lives, this is a work  of pure imagination.

This novel confirms Khakpour as one of our best new satirists,  partly because she is never as moving as when she is entirely sincere.