{"id":46428,"date":"2020-01-16T11:12:09","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T16:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=46428"},"modified":"2020-01-16T13:42:09","modified_gmt":"2020-01-16T18:42:09","slug":"five-more-to-go-shokoofeh-azars-the-enlightenment-of-the-greengage-tree-in-the-booklist-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/five-more-to-go-shokoofeh-azars-the-enlightenment-of-the-greengage-tree-in-the-booklist-reader\/","title":{"rendered":"Five More to Go: Shokoofeh Azar\u2019s The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree [in The Booklist Reader]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0by Shokoofeh Azar<\/p>\n

Although the page facing the title of Azar\u2019s first novel to be translated into English clearly states, \u201cTranslated from the Farsi,\u201d the linguistic enabler remains anonymous; the publisher\u2019s official line is, \u201cthe translator of this book has asked not to be named out of fears for his\/her safety.\u201d Author Azar is no stranger to danger, having escaped to Australia as a political refugee in 2011. Her fiction rings too true, bearing witness to the heinous atrocities suffered by bewildered everyday citizens in Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew the monarchy and installed Ayatollah Khomeini\u2019s brutal regime.<\/p>\n

The titular, albeit mournfully ironic, enlightenment happens to Mom at 2:35 p.m. on August 18, 1988, atop the greengage plum tree at the exact moment when her son, Sohrab, is hanged without trial and his body is about to be dumped into a mass grave with hundreds of victims of the same injustice. Sohrab is her second murdered child, the first having been Bahar, who was burned alive at 13, and whose death doesn\u2019t prevent her from existing among and communicating with the living. The future of the family\u2019s surviving child, Beeta, remains threatened. Despite the relentless tragedy, Azar\u2019s narrative exudes fairy tale charm driven by moments of deep connection that ultimately celebrate human and humane bonds unbroken even in death.<\/p>\n

So we\u2019re only a couple weeks into the new year, and Iran has dominated the headlines. Before jumping to politically manipulated conclusions, why not pick up a book? Marjane Satrapi<\/a>\u2019s Persepolis<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>graphic titles (Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return<\/em>) have become undeniably enlightening classics. For all its faults, Azar Nafisi\u2019s\u00a0Reading Lolita in Tehran<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>certainly put a spotlight on women\u2019s lives in Iran (try Fatemeh Keshavarz\u2019s\u00a0Jasmine and Stars: Reading More Than Lolita in Tehran<\/em>\u00a0as an antidote). Beyond those best known, here are five more notable books for further reading.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Last Days of Caf\u00e9<\/strong>\u00a0Leila<\/strong>\u00a0by Donia Bijan<\/a><\/p>\n

Set in a quiet corner of Tehran, the eponymous Caf\u00e9 Leila is a welcoming haven, where family and strangers alike have gathered for decades. Seeking solace and refuge after discovering her husband\u2019s infidelity, Noor, a San Francisco nurse, with her teenage daughter, Lily, packs up and returns home to her father, Zod. Despite the politics and revolution ravaging the country, Zod\u2019s kept the doors of Caf\u00e9 Leila open to all for decades. Beyond the Caf\u00e9\u2019s walls, the cultural and political restrictions hold fast, but Noor finds the sanctuary she needs, even as her daughter Lily \u2013 desperately missing her father and her friends \u2013 feels like she\u2019s become a virtual prisoner. Mother and daughter must find new ways to communicate, not only with each other, but while navigating an uncertain, unfamiliar world. Through three generations of displacement, The Last Days of Caf\u00e9 Leila\u00a0<\/em>deftly, gorgeously explores identity, belonging, families (by blood, by choice), and the ties of unconditional love.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Refuge<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Dina Nayeri<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the seemingly simple narrative: a father and daughter are separated and spend the next two decades both avoiding and yearning for reconnection. But Nayeri\u2019s sophomore novel \u2013 which adds manifold layers of repeated displacements, political turmoil, mutable identities, disturbing choices, family dysfunction, and even chronic drug addiction to a nonlinear exposition spanning decades, continents, and countries \u2013 is anything but straightforward. In June 2009, militant incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed victory in the Iranian presidential election, sending reverberations around the world. Over the next four months, Bahman Hamidi will finally realize that he must extract himself from his homeland, while his daughter, Niloo, for the first time since she fled Iran 22 years earlier, will reclaim her Iranian origins by inserting herself into an Iranian refugee community in Amsterdam. As their stories overlap, the result is both a commemoration of the ties that bind us and an indictment of the estrangement that isolates, and even kills, us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Song of a Captive Bird<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Jasmin Darznik<\/p>\n

As the only daughter in a traditional family, Forugh experiences strict expectations of gender that nearly stifle her spirit. She escapes her stagnating marriage, even if it means losing her adored young son; separation is the price she must pay as she matures as a writer, hesitantly then stridently steps toward independence, and refuses to be silenced by the violent horrors of the autocratic Shah\u2019s reign. She seeks freedom and inspiration in love affairs, survives personal betrayals and public vilification, and finds contentment and companionship with a wealthy friend. Denigrated and celebrated both, Persian poet and filmmaker Forugh Farrokhzad becomes a hopeful beacon for Persian women during the widespread tumult of 1950s and 1960s Iran. Tehran-born, U.S.-raised Darznik relies on \u201cForugh\u2019s own poetry, letters, films, and interviews as source material\u201d for her debut novel, which culminates in spectacular testimony to a creative force whose searing voice has survived censorship, bans, and too-early death.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"The Stationery Shop<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Marjan Kamali<\/p>\n

Kamali\u2019s stupendous sophomore title stars two young lovers torn apart by class, politics, and history during the violent tumult of 1950s Iran. A Tehran stationery shop becomes the setting where schoolgirl Roya and activist Bahman fall in love, become engaged, and almost marry. Despite their devotion \u2013 enabled by shopowner Mr. Fakhri, who is himself no stranger to thwarted first love \u2013 separation proves inevitable. A devastated Roya is eventually (miraculously) sent to college in California with her sister Zari. She marries patient, adoring Bostonian Walter, experiences setbacks and celebrations, but never quite forgets what could have been a very different life. Six decades pass and septuagenarian Roya walks into another stationery shop, eerily familiar, to learn that Bahman lives in a retirement facility nearby. Their reunion is destined, and finally both lovers will have their lifelong, elusive answers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Zahra\u2019s Paradise<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by Amir and illustrated by Khalid<\/p>\n

\u201cThe authors have chosen anonymity for obvious political reasons.\u201d When you know something like that about a book \u2013 that lives were willing to be risked to get a story out \u2013 how could you possibly not read it? Written by Persian activist\/journalist\/documentary maker Amir and illustrated by Arab artist Khalil, Zahra\u2019s Paradise<\/em> began as an online serial web comic. To ensure worldwide access, the series was released simultaneously in English, Farsi, Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Korean, Hebrew, Portuguese, German, Swedish, and Finnish. The story \u2013 set in the aftermath of Iran\u2019s contested June 2009 presidential elections, which declared incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad victor \u2013 was considered that important. Now with Iran back in daily headlines, the urgency to read Zahra\u2019s Paradise\u00a0<\/em>grows ever stronger. One brother disappears, another brother searches frantically, and families beg for information, witness the horror, and dream of peace.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: “Five More to Go: Shokoofeh Azar\u2019s THE ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE GREENGAGE TREE,” The Booklist Reader<\/em>, January 15, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree\u00a0by Shokoofeh Azar Although the page facing the title of Azar\u2019s first novel to be translated into English clearly states, \u201cTranslated from the Farsi,\u201d the linguistic enabler remains anonymous; the publisher\u2019s official line is, \u201cthe translator of this book has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,787,788,1091,6535,66],"tags":[1321,6608,6668,7235,22,75,915,7590,8774,10,8045,11,149,24,51,7891,1322,7591,13,829,212,39,28,7430,8775,7890,8703,45,1323],"class_list":["post-46428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-iranian","category-iranian-american","category-persian","category-repost","category-translation","tag-amir","tag-bookdragon","tag-booklist","tag-booklist-reader","tag-civil-rights","tag-death","tag-dina-nayeri","tag-donia-bijan","tag-enlightenment-of-the-greengage-tree","tag-family","tag-five-more-to-go","tag-friendship","tag-gender-inequality","tag-historical","tag-identity","tag-jasmin-darznik","tag-khalid","tag-last-days-of-cafe-leila","tag-love","tag-marjan-kamali","tag-murder","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-politics","tag-refuge","tag-shokoofeh-azar","tag-song-of-a-captive-bird","tag-stationery-shop","tag-war","tag-zahras-paradise"],"yoast_head":"\nFive More to Go: Shokoofeh Azar\u2019s The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree [in The Booklist Reader] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/five-more-to-go-shokoofeh-azars-the-enlightenment-of-the-greengage-tree-in-the-booklist-reader\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Five More to Go: Shokoofeh Azar\u2019s The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree [in The Booklist Reader] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree\u00a0by Shokoofeh Azar Although the page facing the title of Azar\u2019s first novel to be translated into English clearly states, \u201cTranslated from the Farsi,\u201d the linguistic enabler remains anonymous; 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