Those Who Are Not Us

This book is an exploration of the transformation of people from self to others and becoming someone else. It depicts the complexity of our sense of loss within the overwhelming historical layers that push us away from being ourselves. “Those Who Are Not Us” is full of structural subtleties that can be traced and identified in various aspects. The idea of café customers drawing in the first chapter subtly refers to the paintings of early humans in caves, which later served as a language providing information about their lives and relationships. In this novel, Mohammad Hosseini has attempted to undertake a challenging endeavor: conveying meaning in a highly layered novel with a complex narrative, where its faint plot is pieced together puzzle-like within these intertwined layers of narration. It presents a difficult experience for the audience, largely stemming from the writer’s ambitious vision.