Having finished The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer a couple of weeks ago, I am motivated to get my post up since the Iranian president, Ahmadinejad, was in NYC last week continuing his lunatic rants.

In her debut novel, Sofer tells the story of a prosperous Jewish family living in Tehran in 1981. Isaac Amin, the patriarch of the family, is arrested and thrown into prison for being wealthy and Jewish. The story details Amin’s experience in a dank prison cell where his fellow inmates are tortured, often killed and have no legal recourse at all. His wife, unaware of where her husband has been taken and his fate, struggles to get through daily life and begins to mistrust everyone, including her long-time housekeeper.

I was most affected by the 9 yr old daughter, Shirin, who is told that her father went away on a long trip and in an effort to shield her mother from additional pain, does not have anyone to share her feelings of loneliness and fear with. Her fellow classmates are all Muslim and one of her closest friend’s father is actually in charge of identifying citizens to target for arrest (including her own family). She just tries to blend in and get through each day. The last member of the family, Parviz, who attends college in NYC, finds himself suddenly cut off from his family and without any financial support. He ends up living in a Hasidic community and struggles with his own identity and place in the world.

This book is beautifully written and very moving. Similar to a A Thousand Splendid Suns, it conveys that there was a time in Arab countries, where life was good regardless of your religious, political and/or economic status. And then comes regime change(s), and anyone can be left as a persona non grata overnight. Sofer left the reader feeling the same mistrust, uneasiness, and fearfulness as her characters.

Considering that Ahmadinejad wants to wipe Israel off the map and believes that Holocaust was a myth, the Amin family in this book were probably a lot luckier than most Jews who were/are left in Iran.

The +
- Fantastic debut novel by a woman in her 30’s
- Beautifully written, very intimate portrayal of a family in crisis
- Gives a great back drop to what is currently going on in Iran
- If you liked Kite Runner, A Thousand Splendid Suns - this book is for you

The -
- None!