Good People: A Novel

Patmeena Sabit
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Good People: A Novel

Patmeena Sabit
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Overview

HEATHER'S PICKCANADIAN400 PAGESENGLISH

Heather’s Review

Good People by Canadian author Patmeena Sabit is a marvel of a novel—one of those rare books that is both intimate and expansive. When a writer of Khaled Hosseini’s calibre (The Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns) calls a book “a spectacular triumph,” you know you are in for something special. And indeed, this novel is exactly that.

At the centre of the story is the Sharaf family—Rahmat, his wife Maryam, and their four children—who have come to America in search of the promise and possibility of a new and better life. Day by day, they navigate the tensions between the values and traditions they brought with them and the pull of the culture they now inhabit.

Surrounding them is a close-knit Afghan community, generous in its support yet unafraid to judge—especially when Rahmat allows his children freedoms others believe go too far. When tragedy strikes, the novel’s central questions emerge with quiet force.

The writing is beautifully lyrical, and I found myself carried from page to page, unable to put it down. Good People is a remarkable debut—thoughtful, compassionate, and deeply absorbing. Do not miss it.

Heather Reisman

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“Propulsive.”—TIME

“Ingeniously structured, thought-provoking, and utterly addictive, Good People will have everyone talking.”—Paula Hawkins

“Brilliant. The best debut I’ve read in a very long time.”—Monica Ali, author of Brick Lane and Love Marriage

Good People is a thrilling tour de force of a novel. I’ll be recommending this book to everyone.”—Ann Patchett

“This devastating début novel takes the form of an oral history about a tragedy that shatters a family. At its heart is a couple who arrived in the U.S. in the late nineteen-nineties as refugees from Afghanistan. They prospered, and brought up four children in an affluent suburb in Virginia. Rotating testimonies from people they know—family friends, a cousin, lawyers—offer theories about what led to the novel’s central catastrophe. Once the nature of the tragedy has been revealed, the book transforms into an intimate study of an Afghan immigrant community forced to reevaluate what it means to raise children in America.”The New Yorker

“Best book of the year contender! Good People is brilliant, original, compelling storytelling. Set in northern Virginia, this novel tells the story of one family’s rise and fall through the points of view of their neighbors and friends, newspaper articles and police reports, and the general public. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!! Brava . . . this book is phenomenal.”—Elin Hilderbrand, via Instagram

“One of those novels where you know right away that a mysterious, unspeakable something has happened, and you are simultaneously terrified and desperate to get the details. . . . This skillful debut is both a bated-breath thriller and a richly atmospheric portrait of an immigrant community.”Oprah Daily

Good People is a gripping, thought-provoking novel that peels back the layers of family, reputation and truth. It’s a story that will leave readers questioning just how well we ever know the people closest to us.”Women’s World

“Patmeena Sabit’s debut, Good People, may remind readers of Celeste Ng’s bestselling Little Fires Everywhere in that it’s a domestic tale that reads like a propulsive thriller and springs from a clash of cultures.”The Minnesota Star Tribune

“Sabit debuts with an electrifying whodunit . . . This propulsive tale heralds Sabit as a writer worth keeping tabs on.”Publishers Weekly

Good People is equal parts an immigrant novel, a tightly wound mystery, and an oral history. Patmeena Sabit moves between these with insight, ease, and grace to give us a remarkable, unsettling snapshot of our complicated times.”—Sameer Pandya, author of Our Beautiful Boys

“With startling empathy for all sides, Patmeena Sabit plumbs the fault lines of honor, truth, prejudice, and how identity shapes guilt in the aftermath of tragedy. What a spectacular triumph this book is.”—Khaled Hosseini

“A triumphant debut! The writing: beguiling. The pacing: breakneck. The possibility I will read this again and again: absolute.”—Alka Joshi, author of The Henna Artist and the Jaipur Trilogy

“At once heartbreaking and hypnotic, Sabit's is a novel that demands to be devoured.”—Booklist, starred review
  • Published date: Feb 03, 2026
  • Language: English
  • No. of Pages: 400
  • Publisher: Crown
  • ISBN: 9780593801062
  • Dimensions: 6.42" W x 1.32" L x 9.5" H
Patmeena Sabit was born in Kabul a few years after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. When she was a month old, her family fled the conflict and became refugees in Pakistan, joining the millions of other Afghans that had sought refuge there. They later moved to the United States and she grew up in Virginia. She currently lives in Toronto.

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