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1950s: A driver named Behrouz discovers an abandoned baby in an alleyway.
Aria
What you need to know before your trail
In Iran, 1953, a driver named Behrouz discovers an abandoned baby in an alleyway. When he adopts her, naming her Aria, he has no idea how profoundly this fiery, blue-eyed orphan will shape his future.
As she grows, Aria is torn between the three women fated to mother her: the wife of Behrouz, who beats her; the wealthy widow Fereshteh, who offers her refuge but cannot offer her love, and the impoverished Mehri, whose secrets will shatter everything Aria thought she knew about her life.
Meanwhile, the winds of change are stirring in Tehran. Rumours are spreading of a passionate religious exile in Paris called Khomeini, who seems to offer a new future for the country. In the midst of this tumult, Aria falls in love with an Armenian boy caught on the wrong side of the revolution. And before long she will be swept up in an uprising which will change the destiny of the land – and its people – forever.
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Discover the Iran revolution from the eyes of an orphan train
This debut that takes us inside the Iranian revolution–but as seen like never before, through the eyes of an orphan girl. The novel is structured around each of the three very different women who find themselves fated to mother the lost child: first, the working-class, reckless and self-involved Zahra, married to the kind-hearted soldier; then the wealthy, careful and compassionate Fereshteh, who invites Aria into her compound and adopts her as an heir; and finally, Aria’s biological mother, Mehri, whose new family Aria discovers in adolescence. A final section, “Aria,” takes us through the brutal revolution that installs the Ayatollah Khomeini as Iran’s supreme leader, even as Aria falls in love with a revolutionary and becomes a young mother herself.
Here is a sweeping, unforgettable, timely saga that brilliantly humanizes people trapped and left powerless and voiceless by an unjust world–people no different from those in the west, wanting love, kindness, belonging and freedom of thought.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Aria
Destination: Iran, Tehran Author/Guide: Nazanine Hozar Departure Time: 1950s
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