Zohreh Ghahremani

I was looking for something different and unusual to read in between my obligations, and this story ticked off all of the boxes. Written as a novel, it felt more like a memoir written years after the experiences detailed within. What emerges is a love letter to the memories of an Iran long passed, the final years in the 1970’s before the Shah’s ouster and the new regime took over.

The novel reads as a first person detailing of events experienced by Roya, a young teenage girl. From her earliest exposures to the ‘radical’ in her school, a more secularized girl’s academy, a literature teacher encourages his students in dissent literature and poetry: playing to the Persian love of that literary form. Interwoven with hushed voices, secrets and secret police the story manages to present and detail a portrait of an Iran as seen by a privileged and non-religious family.

The overwhelming sense I had on completing this story was one of fond memories. It would be impossible to ignore the atrocities that were spoken of within the story, but there is that sense of the author’s regard for the country she knew as a child, and the people who formed her best memories. And it does read much like a letter to a flawed and often disagreeable lover, where you can celebrate the good and still manage to accept the reality of the bad.

Beautifully written with a depth of characterization that matures as the narrator ages, this book manages to enlighten as it entertains. The author states that she wished to answer questions for her American born children about the country of her birth, far different and more complex than the pariah that current news items in America would have you believe. In doing so, I believe she has succeeded in providing a book that makes her version of Iran accessible and easy to relate to with her wonderful prose.
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