Home He Was is a collection of memoirs. The first memoir of the book is “Home He Was,” dedicated to the memory of the author’s grandfather. The author was eleven when he lost his grandfather and became an orphan even though his parents were alive. It took the author four years to complete the first memoir of the book because he wanted to give an accurate picture of his grandpa’s personality. Bringing his grandpa back to life from the exotic territory of the memories was not an easy task for the author. He did not rely on his memories entirely. He interviewed his grandfather’s sons and daughters and his maternal aunts to see what others had to tell about his grandpa. Written in 2017 when the author was thirty, this memoir is a heart-touching episode of the author’s life that changed everything for him.

The character of his grandfather appears in many other memoirs of this collection, making his grandpa the principal character of this book. The book is not just about losing a dear one; it’s about something more profound that in life pain is unavoidable. We lose the ones we love, but they also leave behind memories that we cherish. People who make our childhoods memorable may not be there for long, but they always stay alive in our memories. One theme that emerges from this memoir collection is that Horrors may visit a person, and one may go through immense suffering in life, which he may not deserve, but one can still thrive in life. The death of Shahan’s grandfather was like a roof taken from his head, and it brought a lot more suffering. Horrors visited him in the form of boarding life, physical abuse, sexual abuse, bullying, and a lot more. “Sleepless Nights” would show the readers that sufferings may never end, but one still survives and thrives because of the immense potential one has to endure pain.

It’s an extraordinary memoir collection that Shahan Pervez has come up with after two books of personal essays. The reader won’t just read the soul-piercing accounts of the writer’s life, memoirs like “My First Paycheck,” “My Craze for Movies,” and “Ludo the Magical Game” would amuse the reader.