About the book

Dina Nayeri’s wide-ranging, groundbreaking new book combines deep reportage with her own life experience to examine what constitutes believability in our society. Intent on exploring ideas of persuasion and performance, Nayeri takes us behind the scenes in emergency rooms, corporate boardrooms, asylum interviews and into her own family, to ask – where lies the difference between being believed and being dismissed? What does this mean for our culture?

As personal as it is profound in its reflections on language, history, morality and compassion, Who Gets Believed? investigates the unspoken social codes that determine how we relate to one another.

Praise & Reviews

Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award
Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
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

“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 

“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 

Featured News

The New York Times “First Person” Podcast Lulu Garcia-Navarro interviews Dina

NPR’s “All Things Considered” Juana Summers interviews Dina

NPR features Who Gets Believed? as their Book of the Day

CBC Radio’s The Sunday Magazine(Canada) Amil Niazi interviews Dina Nayeri 

The New Statesman “The World Review” interviews Dina about the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests in Iran

BBC Radio 3 Free Thinking Shahidha Bari interviews Dina Nayeri  

BBC Radio 5 Laura McGhie, presenter Salma El-Wardany interviews Dina Nayeri 

Monocle Meet the Writers, Georgina Godwin interviews Dina Nayeri  

FANE interview with Oliver Bullough  

Standard Issue podcast interviews Dina Nayeri  

WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show”(NYC)  interviews Dina Nayeri (live)

KERA’s “Think”(Dallas NPR) interviews Dina about the book

WYXR “Let’s Get Coffee”podcast (Memphis) SunAh Laybour interviews Dina Nayeri 

New Books Podcast “The Academic Life” interviews Dina Nayeri

Lit Hub’s Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast interviews Dina Nayeri

Ms. Magazine interviews Dina Nayeri

Columbia University Journal interviews Dina Nayeri 

The Saturday Evening Post and Steph Opitz recommend WGB as a spring read 

Washington Independent Review of Books reviews WGB: “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

New York Journal of Books reviews WGB: “a fine storyteller with accounts that enlighten, entertain, and clearly elucidate. . . It is a must read for anyone… wishing to see reality as it is, not as we hope it is.”—  New York Journal of Books 

The Markaz Review reviews WGB: “a testament to the power of words and their ability to decide the fate of a life, or many lives.” —Mischa Geracoulis, The Markaz Review

TIME picks WGB as a best book of March

Hello India Magazine includes WGB on their list of books they can’t wait to read in 2023: “An illuminating (and shocking) reflection on the unspoken social codes that determine how we relate to one another in society” —Salva Mubarak, Hello India

Esquire included WGB in a roundup of the Best Books of Winter and said, “[A] powerful, clarifying book.”

Library Journal gave WGB a rave review, saying, “Few books are as erudite, comprehensive, and intensely personal all at once. This is a riveting read that will be of interest to many… anyone who loves unconventional memoirs and beautiful writing.”

LitHub included WGB in their Most Anticipated

Electric Literature included WGB in their most anticipated books by women of color

Publishers Weekly reviewed WGB and called it “wide-ranging and provocative”

Kirkus gave WGB a great review, saying, “An unflinching, compelling look at how ‘calcified hearts believe’—and disbelieve.”

Shondaland interviews Dina: “This engrossing book ultimately makes the case for empathy…and for thinking critically about who does and doesn’t get believed.”—Sarah Neilson, Shondaland

Lighthouse Bookshop – Read Think Act series interviews Dina Nayeri    

Portobello Bookshop Roxani Krystalli interviews Dina Nayeri live