Who Gets Believed?

Q: Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?

No, you don’t have to buy the ebook to participate, but we do recommend it to get the most out of your club. There are several premium social reading features that are only available when you buy the ebook, like annotations, reactions, comment threads, resources, discussion prompts, and more, all embedded right in the text. It’s a unique and immersive way to read.

Q: Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?

It’s annoying, we know. App store rules prevent us from selling directly in the app, so for now you can only purchase ebooks on our website. Don’t worry: when you purchase an ebook on the web, it’s automatically added to your bookshelf in the app.

Q: How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?

Kindle is a straightforward e-reader; Fable is an interactive e-reader that includes social features inside the ebooks. When you read an ebook on Fable, you can see and react to the text with others in real time. Start a discussion, share highlights and quotes, add emoji reactions—all of it lives right inside the book. It’s hard to explain and easy to see, so we recommend reading the free sample in one of our most active clubs to get a feel for it.

Q: Do you sell physical books too?

We do not sell physical books at this time. Wish we did? Let us know why here!

Q: Are book clubs free to join on Fable?

Most of our clubs are completely free to join. The only exceptions are clubs marked as “Premium” or “Career Development,” which do require a fee. You can find out more on each club’s detail page.

Q: How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?

The first step is to download the Fable app. From there, you’ll be able to create your own private or public book club and invite others to read with you. Once your club is created, click on the plus sign under “Currently reading” and search for this book to add it to your club.

By Dina Nayeri

Publisher Description

National Book Critics Circle Finalist
Finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

"Dina Nayeri's powerful writing confronts issues that are key to the refugee experience."—Viet Thanh Nguyen

From the author of The Ungrateful Refugee—finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the Kirkus Prize—Who Gets Believed? is a groundbreaking book about persuasion and performance that asks unsettling questions about lies, truths, and the difference between being believed and being dismissed in situations spanning asylum interviews, emergency rooms, consulting jobs, and family life

Why are honest asylum seekers dismissed as liars?

Former refugee and award-winning author Dina Nayeri begins with this question, turning to shocking and illuminating case studies in this book, which grows into a reckoning with our culture’s views on believability. From persuading a doctor that she’d prefer a C-section to learning to “bullshit gracefully” at McKinsey to struggling, in her personal life, to believe her troubled brother-in-law, Nayeri explores an aspect of our society that is rarely held up to the light.

For readers of David Grann, Malcolm Gladwell, and Atul Gawande, Who Gets Believed? is a book as deeply personal as it is profound in its reflections on morals, language, human psychology, and the unspoken social codes that determine how we relate to one another.

Download the free Fable app

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

Stay organized

Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.

Build a better TBR

Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool

Rate and review

Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags

Curate your feed

Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities

7 Reviews

3.5

Anna

Created 6 months ago

Matthew Bruemmer

Created about 1 year ago

Sophia

Created over 1 year ago

“This book had powerful messages. I didn’t know much about just how difficult gaining refugee status was, and am glad to have had learnt even a little bit more about the process. As a medical student, I also hope to take forward the importance of examining my own biases and to not be quick in dismissing anyone’s pain. I actually liked the inclusion of personal stories woven in with the case studies, although sometimes I did find them to be disjointed. And while I think I can see what the author was trying to say, I did find the dialogue around mental health and suicide somewhat uncomfortable to read.”

Taylor Franson-Thiel

Created over 1 year ago

“I have so much to say about this book. TLDR: this book SHOULD have been great with a focus on why asylum seekers aren’t believed and how false accusations/confessions under duress occur, but it got bogged down by personal narrative, a lack of cohesiveness, and the author’s weird refusal to believe in someone with mental illness. What’s good: The examination of asylum seekers, falsely accused prisoners, and even what causes people to believe or not believe in faiths. There was some harrowing and powerful stuff in here. The stories of how asylum seekers would go through some unimaginable things, only to be accused of lying once they get to America/UK was devastating. I also really appreciated the examination of false accusations/confessions under duress. Loved the look at how asylum agents/cops are trying to find liars rather than trying to help. Great stuff. What’s bad: Anytime the author takes about herself or her family or her own belief. (We get it, you think all religious people are faking/psychotic). Literally, should not have had any memoir material at all (other than her own experience seeking asylum. That was fine.) Also, the book was super all over the place and the stories got hard to follow. I could manage it, but everything was super weaved together. What’s really bad?: The authors refusal to believe her brother in law (BIL) is mentally I’ll. Her double down and defending herself in believing that BIL was faking/attention seeking/not working hard when that BIL literally kill’s himself. Because he was white and kinda affluent, that means, according to the author, he was not allowed to suffer and, in reality, that isn’t how mental illness works. That whole thread of her trying to balance the “faking” BIL with all asylum seekers as truth tellers just did not work. It took away from the gravity and seriousness of how asylum seekers are not taken seriously. Which is a crucial a important focus of this book. But it is so dampened when the author won’t take mental illness seriously because the sufferer falls into a category of people she doesn’t like. He. Literally. Killed. Himself.”

Julia

Created over 1 year ago

About Dina Nayeri

Dina Nayeri was born during the Iranian revolution and lived as a refugee for two years before being granted asylum in the United States. She is the author of The Ungrateful Refugee, winner of the Geschwister Scholl Preis and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Kirkus Prize, and Elle Grand Prix des Lectrices, and called by The Observer "a work of astonishing, insistent importance." Her essay of the same name was one of The Guardian's most widely read long reads in 2017, taught in schools across Europe, and anthologized by Pulitzer Prize winner Viet Nguyen who wrote, "Dina Nayeri's powerful writing confronts issues that are key to the refugee experience." A 2019-2020 fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, and winner of the 2018 UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize, Dina has won a National Endowment for the Arts grant, the O. Henry Prize, and Best American Short Stories, and was a finalist for the 2017 Rome Prize, among other honors. Her work has been published in 20+ countries and in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Granta, and many other publications. She has a BA from Princeton, and masters degrees from Harvard Business School, and the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and the Iowa Writers Workshop (where she was a Teaching Writing Fellow). She is an autumn 2021 Fellow at the American Library in Paris and has just joined the faculty at University of St Andrews.