Dina Nayeri does an amazing job describing her experience as a refugee - so much so that I could feel her isolation and displacement. I wondered if we were in Italy at the same time; me as a young college student getting to explore the world for the first time, while Dina was stuck in a holding pattern in a country that did not want to claim her. Did I drive by the Hotel Barba on my many trips outside the city? I'll never know, but I desperately wanted to connect with her. I don't think I've read a book that evoked this level of empathy in me. I highly recommend it.