Lit in Translation

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

Nachts ist es leise in Teheran

Shida Bazyar (born 1988)

Translated by Ruth Martin

English editions

In English

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Four voices from one family, each covering a decade, take the story from Tehran in 1979 to Germany today. Behsad is a young communist who joins the underground struggle once the Shah has gone, and falls for Nahid, a passionate reader. By 1989 they have escaped the mullahs with their children to small-town Germany, where they listen to the radio for hours for news of friends in hiding, wanting desperately to return while trying to settle. Ten years later their daughter Laleh visits Tehran with her mother and finds a country unlike the one she remembers. In 2009 her brother Mo mocks German students' protests, until the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form
Novel
Length
283 pages in the original
Genres
Migration, Family, Politics (assigned by AI)
Set in
Iran, Germany, 1979–2009
First published
2016 by Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Author's age
28 when first published
ISBN

9783462048919 (original)

9781917189095 (Scribe UK, United Kingdom)

9781964992105 (Scribe US, United States)