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American Playground by Michael Isaac Shokrian

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American Playground

It’s 1971, and 7-year-old Mishel Manoucherian’s family has packed up their life in Tehran and moved to Los Angeles, launching him headfirst into a disorienting new world of social and schoolyard expectations.  At once a witty and warm exploration of the immigrant experience and coming of age tale, American Playground illuminates the Iranian American experience through a child’s unique perspective. 

Full of heart, humor and insight, American Playground explores the tensions between assimilation and identity, a child’s desperation to pass as one of many, and the age-old conflict between Bugs Bunny and everyone who’s out to “kill the wabbit.” Bringing a fresh perspective to classic genres, Shokrian’s writing recalls the honesty and ferocity of classic Los Angeles writers Fante and Bukowski, with a modern immigrant’s twist.

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