Description
Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026, this captivating and polyphonic novel explores four decades of a family’s complex path through revolution, exile, and systemic displacement. The epic narrative opens in 1979 Tehran as Behzad, a young communist student revolutionary, fights alongside friends for a new social order after the Shah’s expulsion, finding the love of his life in the intelligent Nahid. Following the brutal rise of the mullahs, the story shifts to 1989 West Germany, where the couple lives in protective exile, spending hours glued to the radio desperately hoping for signs of friends hidden back home.
In 1999, their daughter Laleh returns to Iran to discover a capital city that completely contradicts her inherited childhood memories. Finally, in 2009, her brother Mo’s political indifference is shattered in Germany as the historic Green Revolution erupts across television and social media screens. Moving fluidly across shifting generation gaps, this essential story serves as a profound testament to the emotional toll of loss, inherited trauma, and the enduring resilience of human hope.
