Who Gets Believed

Why are honest asylum seekers dismissed as liars? Former refugee and award-winning author Dina Nayeri begins with this question, then turns to her own shocking and illuminating experiences, which grow into areckoning with believability in our culture. From persuading a doctor that she needed a C-section to learning to “bullshit gracefully” at McKinsey to struggling to believe her troubled brother-in-law, this book, as described by literary journalist Jeff Sharlet, is about “the many translations of grief, suffering, and hope” and how who gets believed in our society is rarely held up to scrutiny. For readers of David Grann, Malcolm Gladwell, and Atul Gawande, Who Gets Believed? is as deeply personal as it is profound in its reflections on morals, language, history, compassion, and the unspoken social codes that determine how we relate to one another.

Nothing here is flattened; nothing is simplistic. Nayeri offers a new understanding of refugee life, confronting dangers from the metaphor of the swarm to the notion of “good” immigrants. She calls attention to the harmful way in which Western governments privilege certain dangers over others. With surprising and provocative questions, The Ungrateful Refugee recalibrates the conversation around the refugee experience. Here are the real human stories of what it is like to be forced to flee your home, and to journey across borders in the hope of starting afresh.

Praise & Reviews

A TIME Best Book of March
A Literary Hub Most Anticipated Book of the Year
One of Electric Literature‘s Books by Women of Color to Read This Year
A Most Anticipated Book of 2023—The Week
A 2023 Goodreads Most Anticipated Title
A 2023 Most Anticipated Title —Independent Book Review

“Instantly gripping. . . It’s hard to categorise Who Gets Believed; it is part memoir, part reportage, part criticism. . . But rather than dropping in familiar quotes to underline a specific point, she engages deeply with the texts, alongside other forms of art, to provide refreshing insights that drive the narrative forward. There are some philosophical meditations, particularly in its final act, which feel distracting and interfere with pacing. Even so, the book remains an ambitious and moving exploration of the borders we draw around credible victimhood, and will cement Nayeri’s position as a master storyteller of the refugee experience.”—Aamna Mohdin, The Guardian

“Ardent, harrowing. . . An elegant telling of truth to power.”—Stuart Jeffries, The Observer

“Memoir, philosophy, and social history collide in this compelling examination. . . . [A] powerful, clarifying book.”—Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire

“A groundbreaking book about persuasion and performance that asks unsettling questions about lies, truths, and the difference between being believed and being dismissed in situations spanning asylum interviews, emergency rooms, consulting jobs, and family life.Nayeri explores an aspect of our society that is rarely held up to the light. The book is as deeply personal as it is profound in its reflections on morals, language, human psychology, and the unspoken social codes that determine how we relate to one another.”—Arab News

 “A brilliant whole. Ultimately, it is Nayeri’s forensic examination of her own life, and willingness to expose her own conditioning and interactions with those close to her, that produces the most intense passages. She really does want to get at the truth – and in doing so shows remarkable courage.”  – Perspective Magazine

“a juggernaut of a work that forces readers to rethink on whom we bestow credibility, and why. It’s an important book, and the best thing may be to shelve a copy in every section of the store.” – Washington Independent Review of Books

“It becomes clear within the first few chapters that the author is a fine storyteller with accounts that enlighten, entertain, and clearly elucidate her thesis. . . It is a must read for anyone wishing to have an unbiased view of a crucial part of our society and wishing to see reality as it is, not as we hope it is.”— New York Journal of Books

“This engrossing book ultimately makes the case for empathy across a range of situations, and for thinking critically about who does and doesn’t get believed, especially about their own stories.”—Sarah Neilson, Shondaland

“Who Gets Believed? is a testament to the power of words and their ability to decide the fate of a life, or many lives. For anyone who stands trial, has been falsely convicted, has gained or been denied asylum, the judge and/or jury are arbiters of destiny — at least on earthly planes of existence.” —Mischa Geracoulis, The Markaz Review

“Wide-ranging and provocative.” —Publishers Weekly

“An illuminating (and shocking) reflection on the unspoken social codes that determine how we relate to one another in society. Through case studies spanning asylum interviews and her experiences with establishing a career and life in a new country, Nayeri’s writing will make you question your views on believability.” —Salva Mubarak, Hello India

“Few books are as erudite, comprehensive, and intensely personal all at once. This is a riveting read that will be of interest to many, from those concerned with the plight of refugees and the biases built into many American institutions to anyone who loves unconventional memoirs and beautiful writing.”—Library Journal

“Nayeri dances smoothly between memoir and the stories of others . . . An unflinching, compelling look at how ‘calcified hearts believe’—and disbelieve.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A compelling, generous, and distinctive inquiry into the nature of belief, credibility, and, above all, the deeply unjust and unequal societies in which we live. Reading it I was reminded of Joan Didion’s famous and oft-misconstrued observation that ‘we tell ourselves stories in order to live’. Who Gets Believed? shows the workings of Nayeri’s singular and noble mind.” —Chitra Ramaswamy, author of Homelands: The History of a Friendship

“Dina Nayeri’s mesmerizing, genre-bending book braids together narratives of asylum seekers, exonerated felons, and religious converts to ask: Who Gets Believed? In an era of “fake news” and tribalism, her question is urgent. In lyrical prose, Nayeri dives into court cases, draws from history and literature, and shares her own family’s journey as refugees from Iran. The result is both heartbreaking and hopeful. Reading this book will upend your preconceptions about who is worthy of belief, as writing it did for Nayeri herself.” —Amanda Frost, author You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers

“Who Gets Believed? is an important, courageous, brilliant book; an interrogation of ‘disbelief culture’ and the injustice that both fuels it and is fuelled by it, a form-shifting memoir of an already-remarkable life, and a moving, harrowing investigation of love, loss and care.”—Robert Macfarlane, author of Underland 

“A profound, gorgeous, devastating book, exhilarating in both its compassion and its contemplation of pain. Part memoir, part—everything: reportage, criticism, history, meditation—this is a book about the many translations of grief, suffering, and hope. It is also about performance and truth, staged necessarily and most urgently by refugees seeking asylum, and seeking the belief of others. Who Gets Believed? is that rarest of creations, an original work about a condition in which we are all implicated.” —Jeff Sharlet, bestselling author of The Family

“I was hugely moved by this book… To bear witness, to tell my own story in my own words, is a basic human right. And yet as Dina Nayeri’s powerful, often harrowing, but ultimately inspiring account of injustice and survival shows, millions are denied that right on an almost casual basis. Who Gets Believed? is essential reading, an extraordinary labor of love and hope that is destined to become indispensable in the continuing struggle for justice, a day when everyone has the basic right to speak the truth openly and to have their testimony heard.” —John Burnside, author of A Lie about My Father 

“A truly remarkable book, where universal and deeply personal themes are powerfully interwoven. Torture survivors and other refugees know all too well the cost of being disbelieved about their own life story. Dina Nayeri’s book is itself a masterclass in storytelling, teasing out the crucial implications of ‘who gets believed’ for all of us.”  —Steve Crawshaw, policy director at Freedom from Torture and author of Street Spirit: The Power of Protest and Mischief

International Editions

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