Niloofar (Niloo) Hamidi

Niloofar (Niloo for short) Hamidi is the daughter of Baba and Pari Hamidi, and the wife of Guillaume. Of the 17 chapters in the novel, 11 are told from either her third person perspective in Amsterdam, or her first person perspective as she visits Baba in various cities around the world. The novel starts with Niloo as a thirty year old, living in Amsterdam with her husband. She is a dental anthropologist who studies jaw bones and evolution at the University of Amsterdam. Niloo fled Iran when she was 8 years old with her mother Pari and brother Kian for sanctuary in the United States, settling in Oklahoma City. She attended Yale, where she met her husband, and since then has settled into academia in Amsterdam.

Throughout her life, Niloo carries the identity of her refugee status, literally and metaphorically. As a child, she had many nervous tics, which...