TEHRAN – Parisa Reza’s debut novel “The Gardens of Consolation” by has been published in Persian by Borj.

First published in French in 2015, the novel has been translated into Persian by Abolfazl Allahdadi. 

An English translation by Adriana Hunter became a Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of 2016.

In the early 1920s, in the remote village of Ghamsar, Talla and Sardar, two teenagers dreaming of a better life fall in love and marry. 

Sardar brings his young bride with him across the mountains to the suburbs of Tehran, where the couple settles down and builds a home. 

From the outskirts of the capital city, they will watch as the Qajar dynasty falls and Reza Khan rises to power as Reza Shah Pahlavi. 

Into this family of illiterate shepherds is born Bahram, a boy whose brilliance and intellectual promise are apparent from a very young age. 

Through his education, Bahram will become a fervent follower of reformer Mohammad Mosaddegh and will participate first-hand in his country's political and social upheavals.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Iran, Parisa Reza has written a powerful love story filled with scenes of hope and heartbreak.

Reza was born in Tehran in 1965 into a family of intellectuals and artists, and moved to France at the age of seventeen. She was awarded the Prix Senghor 2015 for “The Gardens of Consolation”.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Parisa Reza’s novel “The Gardens of Consolation”.

MMS/YAW