This Country:
Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America
By Navied Mahdavian
“A heartfelt new addition to the canon of graphic memoirs, This Country is both sad and hopeful, a homecoming and a departure.” - Washington Post
A gorgeously illustrated and written debut graphic memoir about belonging, identity, and making a home in the remote American West, by New Yorker cartoonist Navied Mahdavian.
An NPR, New Yorker, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s Books, Booklist, and Kobo book of the year!
About the Book
Before Navied Mahdavian moved with his wife and dog in November of 2016 from San Francisco to an off-the-grid cabin in rural Idaho, he had never fished, gardened, hiked, hunted, or lived in a snowy place. But there, he could own land, realize his dream of being an artist, and start a family—the Millennial dream. Over the next three years, Mahdavian leaned into the wonders of the natural Idaho landscape and found himself adjusting to and enjoying a slower pace of living. But beyond the boundaries of his six acres, he was confronted with the realities of America’s political shifts and forced to confront the question: Do I belong here?
Mahdavian’s beautifully written and unflinchingly honest graphic memoir charts his growth and struggles as an artist, citizen, and new father. It celebrates his love of place and honors the relationships he makes in rural America, touching on dynamics like culture, environment, and identity in America, and even articulating difficult moments of racism and brutality he found there as a Middle Eastern American. With wit, compassion, and a sense of humor, Mahdavian’s insider perspective offers a unique portrait of one of the most remote and wild areas of the American West.
Take a Peek Inside the Book
Praise for the Book
“A beautifully drawn memoir full of humor, intelligence, and sensitivity.”
―Kirkus, starred review
“This exceptional debut is a sublime self-examination.”
―Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Ostensibly, This Country is about a couple finding their place in the world and learning the true history of the land they're building a life on―a land that has seen both turmoil and awe―but amid the harsh truth, blatant racism, and struggles to fit in, there is so much beauty and humor and compassion. Mahdavian's drawings are deceptively simple, perfectly capturing the wonder of little everyday occurrences. Of time moving, a small family growing and changing, of an entire country still reckoning with past and present mistakes. This is a very important book for pretty much everyone.”
―Julia Wertz, cartoonist and author (Drinking at the Movies, The Infinite Wait)
“This Country is touching, personal, and frequently hilarious. Mahdavian weaves heavy themes of home and belonging with disarming moments of silliness and levity. It’s a story specific to his experience, yet relatable to anyone who has ever searched for a place to be.”
―Reza Farazmand, writer and illustrator of Poorly Drawn Lines
A charming, wise, and haunting book. [I've known] that town quite well for the last thirty years, [and Mahdavian has] captured it in all its complexity."
―Christopher Guest actor, screenwriter, and director (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman, This is Spinal Tap)
“I knew Navied Mahdavian was one of the funniest cartoonists of his generation; This Country proves he is also one of its most subtle and sophisticated graphic storytellers. In Navied's hands, comics feel like poetry. Perfect ink drawings bring land, beast, and human, with all their delicacy and yearning, viscerally to life. This Country, a quintessential story of seeking a home in America and (maybe) finding it, and made me want to grant my own surroundings the grace, humor, and dignity of Navied's observant study.”
―Amy Kurzweil, cartoonist and author (Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir)
”This Country is a hilarious and sometimes harrowing graphic memoir about the Mahdavians' quest to live self—sufficiently in rural Idaho. Learning how to cut down a tree to heat your own house and grow your own vegetables is only one part of it....Wonderful drawings and beautiful writing make this book a great read.
―Roz Chast, author and cartoonist (Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?)
"Enamored of nature and dazzled by fantasies of the rugged west, a young mixed—race couple build a tiny home in the wilds of Idaho―and must confront an America at odds with itself. In This Country, Mahdavian explores today’s cultural divide with a keen eye and a graceful touch. The resulting portrait is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking, elegant and complex, brutal and tender. I dare you not to fall in love."
―Alia Volz, author (Homebaked: Marijuana, My Mother and the Stoning of San Francisco)
Why did urban, vegetarian, gun—wary Navied, of Iranian descent, have the big, bright idea to move with his wife to the frigid mountains of Idaho, months before Trump’s election? Riveting, searching, complex and, oh, hilarious, this memoir ultimately is a quest for strength, wildness, and love, for a deeper vision of all things Earth. Surely this is my favorite graphic memoir I’ve read in years.
―Deb Olin Unferth, author (Revolution: The Year I Fell in Love and Went to Join the War)
The book is an amazing achievement! The sense of place in these pages is extraordinary. One feels not just the rooms but the weather, time of day, the rhythms of nature.
―Jason Katzenstein, author and cartoonist (Everything Is An Emergency)