The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee was a sweeping and beautiful novel about the life of a woman living through 3 successive revolutions in Iran. I didn’t realize it was a translation until after I’d read it, and the prose absolutely does not give it away. Poetic and beautiful, the writing is captivating. The characters are, while not always likeable, well-developed and painfully real in their hypocrisy and selfishness.
Massoumeh, a bright student but overall normal teenage girl, growing up in pre-revolutionary Tehran with two older stalwartly traditional brothers, a younger sister and brother, and her parents. On her way to school one day, she meets and falls in love with a local man. Acting like your everyday foolish teenager, however, has consequences far beyond what those of us raised in the West would even imagine. Read More…