Parisa Reza, The Gardens of ConsolationThis illuminating and lyrical first novel by Iranian-born Reza, translated from the French by Adriana Hunter, won France’s Prix Senghor. Reza follows a young couple as they travel from their ancestral village of Ghamsar to Shemiran on the outskirts of Tehran in the early days of the reign of Reza Shah Pahlavi. Their son Bahram becomes the first from his village to graduate from high school, and is admitted to university in Tehran. Reza tracks the massive changes of World War Two, when the Allies and Russia invaded oil-rich Iran, and the mid-century turmoil of the early Cold War and the coup against prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. She never loses track of her intimate focus on one family whose lives are shaped by love, loyalty, tradition, and the continual adjustments required as political power shifts.
