Disoriental (French: Désorientale) is a French-language novel by French-Iranian author Négar Djavadi, published by Éditions Liana Levi [fr] in 2016. Tina Kover translated the book into English, and this version was published by Europa Editions in 2018.^[1] It was the first novel written by the author.^[2]

The book is narrated by Kimiâ Sadr,^[1] who at age 10 flees Iran and goes to exile in Paris. She feels disoriented from her lack of status in the society, and the novel's title is a combination of the words "désorienter" and "oriental".^[3] Disoriental describes the history of her family, including her two older sisters, her six uncles, and her parents. Her father Darius, who does political advocacy,^[2] accommodates the narrator's tomboyish nature.^[1] Kimia is a bisexual.^[3] Her mother Sara is also an activist.^[2]

Kimiâ's second uncle, a gay man, lives in a country where homosexuality is illegal and has a heterosexual marriage that produced children. The other characters see him as the family mythologist.^[1]

Foreshadowing is a common device in Disoriental.^[2]

Azarin Sadegh of the Los Angeles Review of Books stated that the French original has a "rich, deep, lyrical, with cinematographic quality" while this aspect disappears in the English translation.^[3]

Dalia Sofer of The New York Times described this as a "rich" novel. She criticized the lengthy descriptions of Iranian history, arguing the passages are "weighing down" the content.^[1]

Robin Yassin-Kassab of The Guardian stated that "this novel compels the reader’s attention as consistently as it entertains."^[2]

The English translation of Disoriental has been shortlisted for the 2019 Albertine Prize^[4] and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation,^[5] and won the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction at the 31st Lambda Literary Awards.^[6]