House of Sand and Fog

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III, originally published in 1999, is a crime novel concerning a dispute over the ownership of a house in the Bay Area beach town of Corona, California. Told primarily through the dueling perspectives of a recovered addict and Iranian exile, the novel interrogates the nature of American identity and the integrity of social relationships. House of Sand and Fog has earned numerous recognitions: It was selected for Oprah’s Book Club and qualified as a finalist for the National Book Award. In 2003 the novel was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley. This guide references the First Vintage Contemporaries edition originally published in March 2000.

Plot Summary

House of Sand and Fog follows Massoud Behrani, a former Iranian colonel who fled to America with his wife and two children after the Iranian Revolution, and Kathy Nicolo, a recovering addict whose husband recently left her, as they compete for ownership of a one-story bungalow in the beachside Bay Area town of Corona.

The novel opens with Behrani, whose daughter is recently married, seeing a newspaper advertisement for a bungalow auction in Corona. He wins the auction, spending the remainder of his family’s savings to flip the house.