Publisher's Synopsis
WINNER
2019 Albertine Prize
2019 Lambda Literary Award
Prix du Style
Prix de la Porte Dorée
2016 Lire Best Debut Novel
Le Prix du Roman News
Now in B-format Paperback
Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five, with a new life and the prospect of a child, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which reach her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them.
In this high-spirited, kaleidoscopic story, key moments of Iranian history, politics, and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph. Yet it is Kimiâ herself-punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own "disorientalization"-who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel.
"In her remarkable novel, Negar Djavadi beautifully captures the "disorientation" of exile and the attempt to reconstruct a self through family stories." - The New York Times
"The novel pulsates with life but does not shirk from violence. The gorgeous prose…takes the edge off the relentless turmoil described throughout." - The Financial Times
"A momentous saga of modern Iran." - Publishers Weekly
