SARA GOUDARZI

The Debut Novel from Sara Goudarzi

This magical debut follows a woman and a young girl a world apart from each other whose paths cross in the most unusual of ways.

Available from Deep Vellum Publishing

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Deep Vellum Books | McNally Jackson | Books are Magic | Bookshop | Greenlight Bookstore | Word Bookstores | Oblong Books | Powell's | Barnes and Noble | Amazon

A Poets & WritersNew and Noteworthy Book” | Listen to excerpt here

A Loan Stars Jan & Feb 2022 Adult Top Ten Pick

A Bustle must-read new book

A Ms. magazine Most Anticipated Reads for the Rest of Us 2022 pick

“Exquisite and magical debut...readers will find this captivating.” —Publisher's Weekly

“At its heart, this is a story about the deep ties of real and true friendships, one at its end and the other just beginning.” —Booklist

“With a narrative style full of compassion and a close understanding of the fragility of reality, Goudarzi’s debut novel interrogates our ideas of separateness and normalcy while defining the threads of hope and love that connect us across time and space.” —Manhattan Book Review

“The book is studded with sweeping symbolism and literary metaphors, bearing witness not only to the stranglehold grief can take on a person’s life but also to injustices inflicted on marginalized groups in this world...the novel introduces a thought-provoking and intelligent new voice.” —Lanie Tankard, The Woven Tale Press

“A rocket of a read—a propulsive and explosive ride. I love it when a novel manages to be this smart and this gripping at the same time. In The Almond in the Apricot, two lives come together across time and space to form one hell of a story. Sara Goudarzi’s impressive debut shows she’s one to watch, and one to read.” —Mat Johnson, author of Pym and Loving Day

“A beautiful, strange, shape-shifting novel about the movement of grief and longing, The Almond in the Apricot had me at Emma’s first dream of Lily and didn’t let go. Sara Goudarzi has written a wonderful and compelling novel, made all the more astonishing by the fact that it is her first. I loved it.” —Ethan Rutherford, author of Farthest South & Other Stories and The Peripatetic Coffin

 “The Almond in the Apricot is a dazzling meditation on loss and the power of connection. Truly, I can't think of a more perfect story for our time.” —Heather Harper Ellett, author of Ain’t Nobody Nobody

The Almond in the Apricot is brimful of mystery and longing, a page-turner that derives its suspense from vast and resonant questions about the layers of the self and of the world. Movingly, Sara Goudarzi’s debut novel plumbs the depths of grief, desire, and love.” —Clare Beams, author of The Illness Lesson

Sara Goudarzi is a Brooklyn writer and holds an M.A. in journalism from New York University and an M.S. in engineering from Rutgers University. Her non-fiction, poetry and translations have appeared in Scientific American, The New York Times, National Geographic News, The Christian Science Monitor, CNN.com, The Globe and Mail, Scholastic’s Science World magazine, The Adirondack Review and Drunken Boat, among others. Sara is the author of Amazing Animals, Leila's Day at the Pool (2022) and several other titles from Scholastic Inc. and has taught writing at NYU and mediabistro. She is a 2017 Writers in Paradise Les Standiford fellow and a Tin House alumna.  

Sara is represented by Lori Galvin of Aevitas Creative Management