7.6 /10 1 Votes
3.7/5 Barnes & Noble Language English Pages 365 pp Originally published 1 February 1999 Genre Fiction Awards Oprah's Book Club | 3.8/5 Goodreads Country United States Publication date February 1, 1999 ISBN 0-393-04697-4 Publisher W. W. Norton & Company | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Media type Print (Hardcover and Paperback) Adaptations House of Sand and Fog (2003) Similar Andre Dubus III books, Oprah's Book Club winners, Fiction books | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
House of Sand and Fog is a 1999 novel by Andre Dubus III. It was selected for Oprah's Book Club in 2000, was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, and was adapted into the 2003 film, House of Sand and Fog.
Contents
Plot
Dubus introduces Massoud Behrani, a former colonel exiled from Iran after the Iranian Revolution. Because his background is military rather than professional, he has not been able to establish a career in the US and works as a trash collector and convenience store clerk. With his savings, he pays the rent on his family's expensive apartment and provides an elegant wedding for his daughter. His fellow, more successful Iranian exiles do not know that he holds low-skilled jobs.
Meanwhile, Kathy Nicolo, a former drug addict who is still recovering from her husband's abrupt abandonment of her, has been evicted from the family home, because the county (wrongfully) claims she has failed to pay taxes on the property.
Film adaptation
In 2003 the novel was adapted into a film of the same title starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. While the novel suggests that experiences in Lester Burdon's youth were responsible for some of his rash decisions, the movie does not attempt to explain any of his motivations. The movie's ending differs from that of the novel, removing the final confrontation between Behrani and Kathy. The consequences of the Behranis' deaths on Kathy are also not explored in the movie.