The Nights are Quiet in Tehran
Translated by Ruth Martin
Shortlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize
A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family's flight from and return to Iran.
1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah's expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid.
1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power.
1999. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories.
2009. Laleh's brother Mo is more concerned with a friend's heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down ...
A topical, moving novel about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom.
'We always think we know something about people, but then Shida Bazyar brilliantly shows us how much we still have to learn.' -Olga Grjasnowa, author of City of Jasmine
'So lively, so touching, and more relevant than ever. Read it!' -Cosmopolitan
'With a clear, sharp eye and plenty of space and feeling for contradictions, Bazyar draws a family portrait of people who have started a new life in a foreign country and are trying to keep something of the old.' -Books Magazine
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