An impressive debut, not easily forgotten' Observer 'Explores the darkness and hope of a city on the brink of revolution. 'Warm-hearted, compelling, hugely enjoyable' Times 'Leaves you simultaneously heartbroken and full of hope' Sunday Times 'Sweeping, cinematic and oh-so-gripping' Sunday Telegraph And then, just as the political turmoil in the country deepens, Aria falls in love with a boy caught on the wrong side of the revolution. As Aria grows she is torn between the three women fated to mother the harsh wife of the man who rescued her a wealthy widow, who offers her refuge but cannot offer her love and the mysterious Mehri, whose secrets will shatter everything Aria thought she knew about herself.

In an alleyway an abandoned baby cries into the night, attracting the attention of the young man who will save her.Īnd so begins the story of Aria, an orphan girl who comes of age on the volatile streets. a Doctor Zhivago of Iran' Margaret Atwoodġ950s Tehran. Nazanine Hozar’s stunning debut gives us an unusually intimate view of a momentous time, through the eyes of a young woman coming to terms with the mysteries of her own past and future.'A sweeping saga about the Iranian revolution as it explodes. The novel’s heart-pounding, explosive finale sees the Ayatollah Khomeini’s brutal regime seize power-even as Aria falls in love and becomes a mother herself. Over the next two decades, the orphan girl acquires three mother figures whose secrets she will learn only much later: reckless and self-absorbed Zahra, who abuses her wealthy and compassionate Fereshteh, who adopts her and mysterious Mehri, whose connection to Aria is both a blessing and a burden.Ī university education opens a new world to Aria, and she is soon caught up in the excitement and danger of the popular uprising against the Shah that sweeps through the streets of Tehran. He snatches up the child and takes her home, naming her Aria-the first step on an unlikely path from deprivation to privilege. One night, an illiterate army driver hears the pitiful cry of a baby abandoned in an alley and menaced by ravenous wild dogs. The government is unpopular and corrupt and under foreign sway. It is the 1950s in a restless Iran, a country rich in oil but deeply divided by class and religion.

An extraordinary, cinematic saga of rags-to-riches-to-revolution that follows an orphan girl coming of age in Iran at a time of dramatic upheaval

Aria by Nazanine Hozar