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House of Yesterday

by Deeba Zargarpur

Subject
People & Places - United States - Asian American & Pacific I
Age
Teen
Format
Hardcover
Pages
320
Publisher
Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Byr)
Size
14.7 cm × 21.3 cm
ISBN
9780374388706

Taking inspiration from the author's own Afghan-Uzbek heritage, this contemporary YA debut is a breathtaking journey into the grief that lingers through generations of immigrant families, and what it means to confront the ghosts of your past.

Struggling to deal with the pain of her parents’ impending divorce, fifteen-year-old Sara is facing a world of unknowns and uncertainties. Unfortunately, the one person she could always lean on when things got hard, her beloved Bibi Jan, has become a mere echo of the grandmother she once was. And so Sara retreats into the family business, hoping a summer working on her mom’s latest home renovation project will provide a distraction from her fracturing world.

But the house holds more than plaster and stone. It holds secrets that have her clinging desperately to the memories of her old life. Secrets that only her Bibi Jan could have untangled. Secrets Sara is powerless to ignore as the dark truths of her family’s history rise in ghostly apparitions -- and with it, the realization that as much as she wants to hold onto her old life, nothing will ever be the same.

Told in lush, sweeping prose, this story of secrets, summer, and family sacrifice will chill you to the bone as the house that wraps Sara in warmth of her past becomes the one thing she cannot escape…

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What reviewers said

"Zargarpur has penned a dazzling debut that combines a complex intergenerational immigrant-family drama, a story of a teen dealing with sweeping life changes, and a genre-bending ghost story."
Booklist, STARRED REVIEW
"A suspenseful, artfully written paranormal drama exploring the ghosts of intergenerational trauma."
Kirkus
"[A] dreamlike novel that engagingly examines grief, healing, and preserving the stories of the past."
Publishers Weekly
"Lyrical and poignant, Deeba Zargarpur's novel weaves an evocative narrative of grief, family, and the many ways in which the past can haunt us. A heart-wrenching debut, and one you cannot miss."
Swati Teerdhala, author of The Tiger at Midnight trilogy
“Much like the titular house that both haunts and illuminates Sara’s life, House of Yesterday is an atmospheric powerhouse of a book that will have you gripped in its thrall long after you’ve turned the last page. Zargarpur’s tale of how family both builds us up and tears us apart will stay with me for a long time.” —Roseanne A. Brown, New York Times Bestselling Author of A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
"A beautifully written tale about reckoning the rose-colored stories our family tells us as children with the often painful truths we understand as adults. Sara's unflinchingly messy and deeply heartfelt journey will remain with readers for a long time."
Amanda Foody, New York Times Bestselling co-author of All of Us Villains
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© 2026 Peekabooks Inc. All Rights Reserved.