Everything Sad is Untrue opens with its narrator, Khosrou Nayeri, saying, “All Persians are liars and lying is a sin. That’s what the kids in Mrs. Miller’s class think, but I’m the only Persian they’ve ever met, so I don’t know where they got that idea” (1). Khosrou’s mom says this is true since everyone makes mistakes, but his dad disagrees, saying that Persians aren’t liars. Rather, they’re poets trying to recall their dreams and their history. Khosrou references 1,001 Nights and promises to tell the reader, and his teacher, Mrs. Miller, a story.

He begins with Baba Haji killing a bull, his first memory. Its blood is what he remembers the most. It’s also one of two memories he has of his grandfather when he lived in Iran. They would travel each week to visit Baba Haji. When they arrived this first time, they heard a scuffle, and a bull spots Khosrou. Baba Haji then appears and kills the bull. It is being slaughtered in his honor since the celebration was for him, but he doesn’t realize until later that he could have saved the bull since he was only three years old at the time of the memory.