TEHRAN-The Persian translation of the book “Her Name is Mercan - A Forgotten Story of World War II” written by Shahzadeh N. Igual has been released in bookstores across Iran.

Roya Pourmanaf has translated the book that has been published by Hoonaar Publication in 330 pages, Honaronline reported.

After Soviet soldiers began occupying Poland, thousands of people were forcibly sent to Siberia. Some died on the way, others from starvation or disease. The nearly 200,000 Poles who remained in the camps were loaded onto ships and forced to emigrate, ending in Isfahan and Tehran in Iran. These people, who now knew death by its smell, had come to a brand new country that welcomed them.

At that time, the Iranian people were also struggling with famine and epidemics, but they loved and accepted their guests. In saffron-scented cities, the refugees who saw humanity, cooperation, and love felt like the sun had risen on their frozen lives. They learned Persian and carpet weaving, fell in love with Iranians, and married them.

In her new novel, Shahzadeh N. Igual poetically tells the drama of all people torn apart by war, based on the real-life stories of a group of Poles who were forced to leave their homeland. What the heroes Rahel, Helena, and Sara experience is actually the eternal struggle of all refugees. Those who were driven from their homes, held captive, left to die, killed,d and exiled. The book is a novel of absolute love and holding on to life abroad.

Born in Tehran, Shahzadeh witnessed the war between Iran and Iraq as an elementary school student. She went to Turkey in 1990 with her mother and sisters.

After high school, she studied sociology in Izmir, then she started to travel and was on every acre of land across the world where coffee is grown. She obtained her doctorate in Middle Eastern religions abroad. She traveled the Silk Road. Specializing in thematic and business trips, she also worked as a manager in hotel companies.

She published several articles on sociology, most of them in Iran; she translated Iranian literary works and films into Turkish.

Shahzadeh writes novels that critics describe as multi-layered works, about Iran’s past and present, with autobiographical touches, telling stories of families or the Iranian society before and after the Islamic Revolution, making a powerful synthesis of the conjuncture of historical events with fiction. She also draws attention with her own poetry as well as poems by great Iranian and Turkish poets of the past and present in her text. 

Her first novel “The Red Sirens of Tehran” was published in 2017, her second novel “They Shot at the Rolls-Royce, Daddy” in 2018, and her third novel “Tears of Isfahan” in 2021.

With her original concept “Iran, Yesterday and Today” – seminars on Iran’s past and present with its history, sociology, ethnography, traditions, heritage, and literature as well as traveling in Iran – she is a requested speaker by academic institutions such as Istanbul, Akdeniz, Ege, Dicle and Pamukkale Universities, by clubs such as Rotary Club and Lions Club, associations and non-governmental organizations such as the Union of Writers of Turkey, Galatasaraylilar Dernegi, the Association of Istanbul Tourism Guides, also for events of major travel agencies such as Setur and Dünyanin Renkleri as well as institutions such as the French Institute of Turkey in Istanbul, Ayna Akademi and  Ortak Yasami Gelistirme Vakfi, among others.

In 2018, she wrote and produced “A Thousand and One Nights in One Night”, a poetry and music show: an excellent selection of Persian poetry, sagas, and tales, ancient and contemporary, performed by herself in Persian and Turkish, with the musical participation of Hoom Blues Band from Iran and the renowned special guest, guitarist Akin Eldes from Turkey. The show was accompanied by a live painting session on stage by an Iranian painter and an exhibition by a celebrated Iranian photographer in the foyer.

She was decorated with a Prize of Honor by the Islamic Republic of Iran, for her efforts to help the Turkish intelligentsia get acquainted with Iran, she also received a certificate of honor from the Association of Iranian Businessmen and Industrialists in Turkey.

She continues to accompany distinguished cultural groups in Iran for renowned travel agencies, sharing the best of her native land with her travelers for whom she organizes literature and sociology seminars as well as exclusive travel events. She organized and guided the first Persian Literature Theme Tour in Iran, which has been continuing with great success since then. Her original concept of the expedition of “Meetings of Persian Art and Culture in Iran” took place between famous Turkish writers such as Nedim Gürsel, Ayşe Kulin, and Tuna Kiremitçi and great Persian writers and poets such as Nahid Tabatabai, Ahmad Pouri, Shams Langeroudi and Seyed Ali Salehi.

SS/SAB