Latest / Bookies' Favourite / The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin | Review | International BookerPrize 2026

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The Nights are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin | Review | International BookerPrize 2026 · Bookies' Favourite

• 0:10
  Hello, welcome to the Club bookies favorite book club.
• 0:14
  We read literary shortlists and award-winning novels.
• 0:18
  We're an independent podcast with no official links to the
• 0:20
  awards we discuss. We're currently reading the
• 0:23
  International Booker Prize 2026 shortlist.
• 0:27
  The award recognizes as a vital work of translation in the UK
• 0:31
  and Ireland. In this episode, we're
• 0:33
  discussing The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar,
• 0:37
  translated from the German by Ruth Martin, and the audiobook
• 0:41
  is narrated by Anushka Rava and Dana Hakshu.
• 0:45
  Originally published in German in 2016 and published by Scribe
• 0:50
  in 2025. The German version of this novel
• 0:53
  was previously awarded the Blogger Literary Award, the
• 0:57
  Ullahan Prize, and the UVA Johnson Prize.
• 1:00
  And follow us on Instagram and Goodreads at Boogie's favorite
• 1:03
  book club and e-mail us on boogiesfavoritebookclub@gmail.com.
• 1:09
  All of our socials and e-mail addresses are in the description
• 1:12
  below. Hi, guys.
• 1:15
  I'm Hannah. And I absolutely adored this
• 1:21
  book. Like, I write the whole thing
• 1:25
  about the Booker Prize this year.
• 1:26
  I was not connecting with it at all.
• 1:27
  Like the first week we read. Yeah, I liked it.
• 1:30
  But this, this book was like, This is why I'm reading the
• 1:33
  International Booker Prize. Like, it just had everything
• 1:36
  that I wanted in it. And I can't wait for us to
• 1:41
  discuss it because I think I'm the only one to have loved it.
• 1:44
  But it made me tearful and emotional and like my heart was
• 1:49
  like so full at times, like it hurt.
• 1:51
  It was, it was beautiful. I am Aaron, you can find me at
• 1:55
  Aaron Rice Media and I am waking up to the scent of my own
• 2:01
  armpits. I really enjoyed this book and I
• 2:07
  think that someone might find that surprising, but I I really,
• 2:13
  really enjoyed this and I think I agree with Hannah.
• 2:17
  I think this is the winner. Hi, I'm Lucy.
• 2:20
  Yeah. Oh, guys, I feel really bad with
• 2:22
  this. I really didn't like it.
• 2:26
  I feel so bad. I'm feeling like maybe it was
• 2:28
  like a perfect storm of like not the right book for me at the
• 2:31
  right time. And I was trying to think, why
• 2:32
  do I not like this book? I think I really struggle with
• 2:35
  multiple points of view and I also massively struggle with
• 2:41
  teenage. Like the teenage perspective I
• 2:45
  quite enjoyed. I wouldn't say it was my
• 2:49
  favorite of anything, but I quite enjoyed the first bit and
• 2:50
  then I felt like it. For me I really didn't enjoy any
• 2:55
  of the other bits apart from then the last bit.
• 2:57
  If there was a graph for all 5 parts it would be me reasonably
• 3:01
  happy and then it just plummets. And then at the end I kind of
• 3:06
  like the the epilogue bit. So that kind of went back up
• 3:09
  again for me. But it's only like 4 pages so.
• 3:12
  Spoiler warning from this point on, let's start with a quote
• 3:15
  from The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran.
• 3:18
  I think if all this works smoothly, if the whole of life
• 3:22
  works out with such wonderful ease, how can anyone still be
• 3:26
  worried that this revolution will come to a bad end with the
• 3:30
  wrong people pulling the strings?
• 3:32
  So the nights are quiet in Tehran, begin in the Iranian
• 3:36
  capital in 1979, and that's where we meet our main
• 3:40
  character. Well, sort of main character
• 3:42
  Beijad, and he's hoping for, you know, our revolution in this
• 3:46
  country. And we follow Beijad, we, his
• 3:49
  wife and his children throughout the rest of the novel, following
• 3:53
  their time from when they're in Iran to when they have to flee
• 3:56
  to Germany. I have to talk about this main
• 3:58
  character. I'm thinking about him.
• 4:00
  I think about, I know he's obviously not real, but like, he
• 4:02
  reminds me of someone real. You know, this book really
• 4:06
  reminds me of people from home and and people from other like
• 4:12
  political struggles. Like I think about all the
• 4:15
  different like political figures and people who give their lives
• 4:19
  for like political uprisings and that.
• 4:21
  So it felt really meaningful for me in this week and I I love
• 4:28
  when we got to meet. Is it pay payment?
• 4:31
  I think at the start, Beijad is not dismissive of him, but he's
• 4:34
  like, oh, he's just there in the background.
• 4:36
  Can he's just taking the photos? And then later on, because
• 4:42
  Peyman's brother is quite getting into involved in the
• 4:46
  more like extreme religious side of things, later on we find out
• 4:51
  that their names are like on a list.
• 4:53
  And Peyman basically gives his life.
• 4:55
  In my opinion, he gives his life to let Bejad escape.
• 4:59
  And I find that really, really emotional.
• 5:04
  I just absolutely sticks with me because he gets brought up
• 5:07
  throughout the other chapters, which we can chat about.
• 5:09
  But I just thought it just made me think of, hi, there may be
• 5:14
  people in your life sometimes that seems so insignificant or
• 5:17
  like you don't overly, they're not very close or like you think
• 5:21
  are really involved in, say, a movement.
• 5:23
  But then when it comes down to it, they play such a big part.
• 5:28
  OK, well, we're diving way down the line here.
• 5:30
  So how about we do it in parts? Because that doesn't even happen
• 5:34
  in the first part. So I, I understand what you're
• 5:39
  saying that yeah, he's, he's kind of in the background or
• 5:43
  he's at least not as central as he kind of, I mean, he never
• 5:47
  becomes central, but he he has such an important role.
• 5:51
  And so if we start with with the first part that is bizarre, that
• 5:57
  takes place in 1979 in Iran. And he is the secret
• 6:03
  revolutionary and he's a communist.
• 6:08
  He's 27 years old. He's a teacher and he's got his
• 6:12
  best friend, Saurabh. And Payman is like the friend
• 6:18
  that they just like have from childhood who kind of like tags
• 6:21
  along, but he's not. He takes photos.
• 6:24
  Yeah, exactly. And but he's he's not like his
• 6:27
  great friend. They just kind of have been
• 6:30
  friends ever since childhood. So they're kind of stealing each
• 6:34
  other's lives. And but he kind of talks
• 6:36
  negatively about payment a quite a lot where he's like, oh, he's
• 6:42
  not as committed to the cause and he's over here like shaving.
• 6:48
  Why is he shaving? Like if he has to be committed
• 6:51
  and not shave? And I thought it was really
• 6:54
  interesting kind of this entire book as I was reading, I already
• 6:58
  had the context that you loved this book, but just knowing you
• 7:02
  and knowing how you read, you do like to relate a lot of things
• 7:09
  to your own life or your experiences of those around you.
• 7:14
  And the this entire time I was like, Hannah is thinking of the
• 7:17
  Troubles. Hannah is thinking of people who
• 7:21
  are like in paramilitaries or just part of different
• 7:26
  organisations that are trying to make a change.
• 7:31
  And they're like meeting in secret.
• 7:34
  And sometimes they're like doing this by violent means and other
• 7:39
  times not so much. But I was like, Hannah is 1.
• 7:42
  This is a Hannah book down to the ground because it's about
• 7:46
  the Troubles without actually being about the Troubles.
• 7:49
  I mean, I'm not going to like lie and say I'm a big fan of
• 7:54
  Troubles or something like I I'm really just more like fascinated
• 8:00
  by high people. I always said I would love to
• 8:06
  believe in something so much that I would be willing to like
• 8:09
  give my life to it because I just can't imagine believing in
• 8:13
  A cause or a political movement so much that I would risk my own
• 8:17
  life. And that's why I have such
• 8:19
  respect at times. I know that seems a weird word
• 8:22
  maybe to use when other people view them like political figures
• 8:25
  or that in a different way. But I I mean, it's probably not
• 8:30
  a shocker that I've also studied politics and social justice.
• 8:33
  And we'd be the nerd running in with like my Times Magazine,
• 8:40
  like with a which I like these photographs and everything to
• 8:43
  tell everyone. I was like, look at this, like,
• 8:45
  look what's going on in Colombia and things like that because I
• 8:47
  was just fascinated. So yeah, this book.
• 8:50
  Yeah. Anything I suppose political and
• 8:52
  getting to see maybe behind the curtain a bit more of like this
• 8:55
  human side to these revolutionary type of figures
• 8:59
  is, yeah, it got me. Well, So what did we think of
• 9:03
  Part 1? And we kind of follow Bezad.
• 9:07
  Bezad, I can't remember how to say his name and I listened to
• 9:09
  the entire audio book, but what did we think of him?
• 9:14
  He, he seemed to be of that mindset that a lot of young
• 9:22
  people might be where it's like, I can make a difference.
• 9:26
  And I'm, I'm not trying to say that you can't make a
• 9:29
  difference. I'm not trying to, to say that
• 9:32
  people shouldn't be engaged in this kind of stuff.
• 9:34
  But I was the entire time. I was like, OK, he really sees
• 9:39
  himself as like a hero here. And he is really critical of
• 9:44
  anyone who's not as dedicated to the 'cause as he is.
• 9:48
  And he sees everyone else's sheep.
• 9:50
  And there's some people who like want to like work with other
• 9:54
  organizations. It's kind of like the enemy of
• 9:56
  my enemy is my friend. And, and he's like, no, like we
• 10:01
  are our own 'cause like we should not be like bending the
• 10:06
  knee and and fighting alongside these people who we don't agree
• 10:10
  with. Now that's I did lock this up.
• 10:13
  That is how the this all happens in the like, wake of some
• 10:19
  revolution. I don't want to pretend I know a
• 10:21
  great deal about Iranian history.
• 10:23
  I don't. But there was a fall of, uh, of
• 10:27
  the king, the. Shah.
• 10:29
  The Shah, Yeah, and but that was because all of these other
• 10:34
  political groups organized together to oust the king at the
• 10:38
  the monarchy and. And then that was a good thing.
• 10:41
  They were all out celebrating, but that then left them in a
• 10:45
  state of unrest where who was then going to take over control
• 10:50
  because there was so many split organizations that all didn't
• 10:54
  agree with each other. Yeah, there's like a massive
• 10:57
  political vacuum after the revolution against this shot.
• 11:00
  But that's where I think that the book did really well, is
• 11:03
  that we know enough of, I'd say most people know enough to know
• 11:06
  that while you're reading this book that it's not going to work
• 11:08
  out for him. And I think that's when the book
• 11:10
  does its best because you can see how, as you said, how he's
• 11:14
  like dismissive of other people in the movement and he's
• 11:18
  completely dismissive of the the religious element as well.
• 11:22
  I think that's like, as a modern reader who's not reading this in
• 11:26
  1979, you know, that it's not going to work out for him.
• 11:28
  Like, you know, things aren't going to go his way.
• 11:32
  So I found that like, as I was reading it, I was like, it was
• 11:35
  really ramping up. And I was like, oh, you know,
• 11:37
  when's it going to Like I was kind of like, when is his bubble
• 11:41
  going to burst? Yeah, that that's my favorite
• 11:43
  part of the book. It's basically him and Saurabh
• 11:48
  who are like brothers in arms. We get a hint.
• 11:53
  Not a hint. I mean it's it's told to us
• 11:55
  directly. But we find out that Bazzad has
• 12:00
  an interest in a woman or a girl or woman who attends.
• 12:06
  Can I say that was my least favorite bit of the first bit?
• 12:09
  Why? Because he he has an interest in
• 12:11
  all. It was just so I was, well, OK,
• 12:14
  this is a bit of a spoiler alert, but it was like, see, the
• 12:17
  minute it was like, there's this girl who comes to my like,
• 12:20
  political movement and I quite like her.
• 12:22
  And I was like, he's never spoken to her.
• 12:24
  And he's like, I quite like her. And I'm like, I'm going to guess
• 12:27
  they're going to have a family in like in the next.
• 12:31
  And you jumped ahead to 10 years later.
• 12:32
  And I was like, I will be so annoyed if they're married
• 12:36
  because they do not know each other.
• 12:38
  I was like, at least if you're going to marry a random woman
• 12:42
  that you fall in love with, it's like make their marriage be
• 12:44
  problematic later. He fell in love with her, I
• 12:47
  think because she was so dedicated to the cause and.
• 12:50
  Yeah, we really know that. Well, she shows off to all of
• 12:54
  these. Things like, we know nothing
• 12:58
  about her. And he's like, oh, she likes
• 13:00
  books and all, and it's like, well, you've never had a
• 13:02
  conversation with her. Like I yeah, yeah.
• 13:06
  You know what, you're, you're right, you're right.
• 13:08
  And I guess it is a miracle that the relationship does get along
• 13:14
  so well down the line and based off nothing to begin with.
• 13:20
  But I, I find it interesting how he is like, I can't, I can't go
• 13:25
  near her. I can't in invest in this
• 13:28
  interest that I have in, in her. And then Saurabh announces to
• 13:34
  him, I'm leaving the 'cause I have to get married.
• 13:37
  He, he doesn't do it like right off the bat, but he announces
• 13:41
  that he's going to get married and he's fallen in love with the
• 13:43
  woman. And then he stops showing up to
• 13:46
  the meetings. He stops taking part.
• 13:48
  And then he says I have to look after my family.
• 13:51
  And then this kind of gives the permission to Bezad to go for
• 13:57
  it. And this is where at the very
• 13:59
  end, this is where we flip from. Saurabh and Bizad are the ones
• 14:05
  dedicated to the cause. And Paymen is like, they're like
• 14:10
  he's wishy washy. He's only signed off for this
• 14:12
  because we're part of this. He's not actually dedicated to
• 14:15
  it. He just wants community.
• 14:17
  And then Paymen is like luck. Go follow the love that you have
• 14:22
  found. I will take over this.
• 14:25
  I will be the person that you need to run things.
• 14:30
  That basically leads to payments downfall to become a martyr
• 14:34
  eventually. I don't think I loved the fact
• 14:37
  that he left the cause like that Bezad had to leave the cause for
• 14:45
  a woman. It just feels like somebody so
• 14:47
  dedicated wouldn't. Well, that's where I think is,
• 14:51
  well, not that sort of, I get what you kind of mean.
• 14:54
  I think it's when he says, oh, I have to look after my family
• 14:56
  now. I'm like, is he saying anyone
• 15:00
  who gets married and continues to be in the cause is not
• 15:04
  looking after their family? And that way it made me respect
• 15:07
  Bejad in a way because it's a it's a belief thing again, like
• 15:11
  believing in something so much. And then like when we're getting
• 15:16
  to near the end of the chapter when he is sent on that like,
• 15:21
  special task and he's just like, oh, yeah, I'm going to go risk
• 15:25
  my life and randomly meet up with people who are going to
• 15:28
  drive me to. I think it was like a bus
• 15:30
  station. And then you have to wait for a
• 15:31
  lady who gives you the signal. And then I felt really tense
• 15:35
  because then the lady doesn't show up for a bit.
• 15:38
  I think she was to have like, a newspaper or something.
• 15:42
  And then this is where we kind of see things slightly go a bit
• 15:45
  awry. Like, yeah, I just can't
• 15:48
  imagine. Obviously, there are people like
• 15:51
  there who have done these types of tasks possibly.
• 15:56
  I just think it's so crazy that you would do that.
• 15:58
  Like, you believe in it so much in this mission that you're just
• 16:01
  going to get in a car with strangers and, you know, maybe
• 16:05
  get arrested. Like it's, it's crazy to me.
• 16:08
  Yeah, I liked all that. Kind of like the start of a
• 16:13
  movement, like meeting people in secret, go into the little house
• 16:16
  that he's in and learning how to the Super army soldier or
• 16:21
  whatever, and all that stuff. And then I liked as well the way
• 16:25
  they're kind of like hearing that things are going badly.
• 16:27
  And I find that all that stuff, that second-half of the first
• 16:33
  part, and I'm not bowled over by the writing of the whole thing.
• 16:36
  So I wasn't bowled over by the writing, but I was like, I'm
• 16:39
  enjoying the plot right now. For me that that very much ends
• 16:44
  when this chapter ends. I I looked ahead at what the
• 16:47
  chapters were called because I knew that the epilogue was
• 16:50
  called Tara. Did you guys notice that the
• 16:54
  little girl in the car at the start is called Sarah?
• 16:58
  That is the most errant thing to notice.
• 17:00
  I love that. Originally I was like, we're
• 17:02
  going to get this little girl's perspective down the line.
• 17:05
  Now, obviously it was a different Tara because he ends
• 17:08
  up having a child called Tara. But I did find it interesting
• 17:11
  that he met this girl and then eventually has a daughter and
• 17:15
  name sort of the same name. And I'm sure that there's a
• 17:18
  reason for that. Well, I had and well, I found it
• 17:22
  interesting the whole Tara stuff because I would think of that as
• 17:28
  like an Irish word. And so I was kind of like,
• 17:32
  because I actually, funnily enough, when I was reading this
• 17:34
  book was at the Hill of Tara, which is the hill of all the
• 17:39
  high Kings of Ireland. It's, it's kind of like
• 17:41
  Buckingham Palace, but underground and you can't see
• 17:43
  it. And if you're English and you're
• 17:45
  listening, that's, that's the equivalent.
• 17:48
  But yeah, like I remember being like, I didn't know that.
• 17:52
  And then I Googled it and it, it can be a Persian name as well as
• 17:56
  an Irish name. And it's actually, it's not even
• 17:57
  really like an Irish name. It's like an Irish American
• 17:59
  name. It only became popular after
• 18:02
  Gone With the Wind. I also thought it was
• 18:05
  interesting how Peyman's brother Amin is like the other side of
• 18:11
  the coin of paymen, were the criticisms that we have about
• 18:17
  paymen, how he's not dedicated to the 'cause he's just taking
• 18:20
  part because he is along for the ride.
• 18:24
  While Amin, the younger brother is part of the religious, the
• 18:32
  Islamic like group that are up and coming.
• 18:36
  And they see this as like horrible, like, why is he like
• 18:40
  dedicated to this, like religion?
• 18:43
  And but they also are like, he's only doing that because he wants
• 18:47
  to be part of something like he, he's not actually committed to
• 18:50
  that. So it's just funny how they even
• 18:53
  look at other people that they know that are part of other
• 18:57
  organisations, part of like other political groups.
• 19:01
  And they're like, oh, they're not committed to that.
• 19:03
  And I wonder if there's something psychological to that
• 19:05
  where it's like no one can like the people that I know cannot
• 19:10
  genuinely follow something that goes against what I want to
• 19:14
  follow. So like, there must be a reason
• 19:17
  why he's doing that, which is he just wants community.
• 19:21
  Like, is it, is it him trying to convince himself?
• 19:23
  Like, oh, we can get him on our side eventually?
• 19:26
  Yeah, I think there's also something to that, like the idea
• 19:29
  that it's like we're really committed or I'm really
• 19:32
  committed and other people can't quite make it to that.
• 19:37
  Yeah. And you have to kind of have a
• 19:38
  reason as to why they believe something different or I did
• 19:42
  like this is definitely the the the best part of the book.
• 19:45
  And something that I really liked about Tayman and his
• 19:47
  brother was the fact that because they introduced, she
• 19:50
  introduces this character who is extremely on the, on the other
• 19:54
  side, the religious side of the, the kind of political vacuum
• 19:58
  that guy like I almost thought payment is going to become like
• 20:02
  his brother or this is like a way of introducing this and
• 20:06
  we're going to see. But like, and I like the fact it
• 20:08
  was like, I don't know where this is going.
• 20:10
  Like I don't know who's going to be on what side.
• 20:12
  I don't know, like, because things like this tear families
• 20:14
  apart and like, as, as it does in the book, like it tears
• 20:18
  everything apart. And I was kind of like, it's
• 20:19
  enjoyable to not enjoyable, but it's like it's cool to read
• 20:22
  something that's like, you don't know what things are going to be
• 20:26
  like in the future and you don't know.
• 20:28
  How this is going to manipulate everybody involved?
• 20:32
  So that thing about like family as well.
• 20:34
  And I think that's really highlighted in this book.
• 20:36
  Like family is such a big thing and everyone's in everyone's
• 20:40
  like little spaces and even your like friends or neighbors are
• 20:44
  almost like family because that's how I like payment and
• 20:46
  all is always a rhyme. So yeah, it's like absurd thing
• 20:50
  of like, how are we all like this?
• 20:51
  And then your brother is like on the complete opposite side.
• 20:55
  Like I yeah, I like that as well.
• 20:56
  There was a firm amount of masculinity and femininity
• 21:00
  against each other throughout each part and an exploration of
• 21:06
  each. They're caught in an in between.
• 21:09
  And I guess you can say that for all of these characters, every
• 21:12
  single one at every point that we chime in with them, they're
• 21:16
  at an in between point. So the the followers of the
• 21:19
  monarchy shave their face, I believe, while the followers of
• 21:24
  Islam grow out their their beards.
• 21:27
  So it leaves these revolutionaries in a place where
• 21:32
  they can't have a fully shaved face because they don't want to
• 21:35
  identify with that group, but they also can't have a fully
• 21:38
  grown out beard because they don't want to identify with that
• 21:40
  group. So they shave, but they don't
• 21:43
  shave all the time and they don't shave perfectly.
• 21:45
  So they're kind of like an in between, which I just thought
• 21:49
  was like really interesting how they they also don't shower and
• 21:53
  it's like they purposefully do this to like be committed or
• 21:56
  they're like, I'm unwashed like I do.
• 21:58
  They just see themselves as more dedicated because they're like
• 22:01
  suffering more. I do wish this is my problem
• 22:05
  with the book a tiny bit is that I wish we the book would be like
• 22:12
  1,000,000 pages long but I wanted another chapter with
• 22:16
  Fejad near the end. Well.
• 22:18
  Let's let's jump into the second part, which is 1989.
• 22:22
  And that is where we follow Naheed, that is Bezad's wife.
• 22:28
  And they have since in the last 10 years had two children and as
• 22:34
  a son and a daughter. And they have fled to Germany
• 22:38
  because Peyman has basically told them that he has been, he's
• 22:43
  about to be sent to prison. And since they have a family,
• 22:47
  it's best for them to get out and and escape while they can.
• 22:51
  We see things from a different perspective where we it's
• 22:55
  basically from like the refugee perspective of trying to
• 22:59
  assimilate with German culture, trying to make friends with the
• 23:03
  locals and the locals are like asking questions that are maybe
• 23:07
  insensitive. Like there's the whole part
• 23:10
  where the the German woman mentions about the article that
• 23:16
  she read or the book that she read about the woman who was
• 23:19
  like being in like a domestic abuse situation.
• 23:23
  Have you ever watched that movie?
• 23:25
  It's the true story of an American, Betty Mahmoody, who
• 23:29
  was held captive in Iran with her four year old daughter
• 23:32
  Maitob by her Iranian born husband.
• 23:36
  So it is true. But I thought that it was really
• 23:38
  interesting getting her perspective.
• 23:42
  I'm trying to actually remember what happens aside from then
• 23:46
  meeting with the neighbors. There must be more.
• 23:49
  You get wee bits and pieces about what's happening at home.
• 23:52
  That's kind of a theme throughout, I guess the fact
• 23:55
  that they're kind of phoning and getting through to people and
• 24:00
  and struggling to get their visas and all sorted.
• 24:03
  And, and I think you do get a bit of their escape story in
• 24:07
  that. That's where we kind of get what
• 24:10
  happened. And we also get the fact as well
• 24:12
  that like, they can't just send a letter home or whatever to
• 24:15
  people, just be like, hey, like, it's really bad here.
• 24:19
  You know, it has to be all in code.
• 24:22
  And that's when they're figuring out what has happened to payment
• 24:25
  and all as well. Like that's when they get some
• 24:27
  hope. Like at some point you know that
• 24:30
  he's OK. Is there much to say about this
• 24:33
  part? Like I'm.
• 24:34
  I'm trying to really think I. Think it just interesting about
• 24:39
  it's like that thing was like a refugee point as well of like
• 24:42
  how to make a place feel like a home for your children.
• 24:46
  But I would just want a bit more from her.
• 24:47
  I'm like, what was it like marrying someone in the party to
• 24:51
  then? I think we do get a small
• 24:53
  glimpse of that where Naeed is moving to Germany, I think has
• 24:58
  opened her eyes and she talks about how they had been told
• 25:04
  like, oh, these capitalists are horrible and it's only the rich
• 25:10
  who get everything. And then she's there in like
• 25:13
  West Germany. And she was like, no, this isn't
• 25:17
  what I was told. Like the everyone seems to
• 25:21
  basically be the same. It's not like you have the Uber
• 25:24
  rich and the Uber per like everyone seems to be around the
• 25:29
  same bracket and no one is like extremely different than than
• 25:33
  the other. And she actually says that the
• 25:36
  most surprising thing to her is that the one group that does
• 25:41
  stand out is students. And then students really play a
• 25:45
  part in the rest of the the book because we we get perspectives
• 25:49
  from students. She then talks about like
• 25:52
  wanting to like educate herself and she's already educated.
• 25:56
  She already has a degree in literature, Iranian literature.
• 26:01
  But then the idea is floated by this German woman.
• 26:04
  Like, what would you want to go to university here?
• 26:08
  And what would you want to study?
• 26:10
  And, and I think she says someone else on the street who's
• 26:13
  like a refugee is going to university, so you should do it
• 26:17
  too. Like the reason they're
• 26:18
  communist is because they don't want the Shah and the Shah is
• 26:22
  this kind of like, I imagine some embodiment of American and
• 26:26
  British everything. And then, as you said, they've
• 26:30
  gone over to Germany and they've seen that that it's not, it's
• 26:36
  not the capitalism that they're thinking about when they want to
• 26:39
  oppose the Shah. And so I imagine, although I
• 26:43
  think that possibly there is the same reason to it's just not as
• 26:48
  as obvious the the differences in class and things like that in
• 26:51
  Germany as maybe would have, would have been in pre 1979
• 26:57
  Iran. Again, I don't know, don't know
• 26:59
  very much about Iran, but I kind of was like you would maybe lose
• 27:03
  a bit of your zeal of like this is exactly what we're fighting.
• 27:07
  I don't know a ton about German history as well, but obviously
• 27:12
  you had the two sides. So it's really interesting that
• 27:15
  that they ended up in West Germany, because you'd think
• 27:17
  that they would have been more in favor of going to East
• 27:21
  Germany because it was part of the Soviet Union.
• 27:25
  The next chapter we go into is then we get the perspective from
• 27:28
  Lale and this is one of my other kind of favorite parts where
• 27:32
  they're given like what is it like that UN model type thing?
• 27:36
  And they all have to be a different country.
• 27:38
  And he just obviously gets given Iran.
• 27:41
  And is it the is it the Irish guy gets Israel or something?
• 27:48
  Is there the Irish? There's an Irish guy there.
• 27:50
  There is somebody with an Irish name and yeah, I think he gets
• 27:54
  he gets Israel. Yeah.
• 27:56
  And it just made me laugh because it's like, and I love
• 27:58
  the phrase that the user, it's like, are you speaking as you or
• 28:03
  are you speaking as the country? Because you're supposed to be
• 28:05
  speaking like, like the country right now.
• 28:07
  And I just love that like, even as children, they've heard so
• 28:11
  much and all from their parents that they're so like how on
• 28:15
  sticking to their beliefs in these moments.
• 28:18
  Well, so this takes place in 1999 and she is about 16 years
• 28:24
  old. This is all happening when she's
• 28:26
  at high school. And so we kind of get then the
• 28:31
  politics of real world politics as well as the politics of high
• 28:35
  school. This is the next cultural
• 28:38
  revolution or our actual revolution that happened in
• 28:41
  Iran. And we're seeing it from the
• 28:44
  perspective of a teenage Iranian refugee who's been growing up in
• 28:52
  Germany. And she can now return with her
• 28:56
  mother and younger sister to Iran, but their father can't go
• 29:01
  back because it's still too dangerous for him to return.
• 29:04
  And their their her younger brother doesn't return as well.
• 29:08
  Do you think it was because it was too dangerous to return or
• 29:12
  do you think he just had this fear of if he returned,
• 29:16
  something would happen or we'd have to face the consequences of
• 29:20
  his actions? As in like not be able to see
• 29:23
  friends or family or whatever that might not be alive anymore?
• 29:26
  I thought it was more like he really wanted to go but part of
• 29:32
  him was like not ashamed but didn't really want to see what
• 29:37
  had happened. I think it's layered because we
• 29:42
  get the explanation that he doesn't want to return to a
• 29:47
  country that doesn't that treated him so poorly.
• 29:51
  So I think it is layered. I think that's his his
• 29:54
  justification, but I think it's dangerous.
• 29:57
  I think it would be way too dangerous for him to return.
• 30:00
  And because I think this is the point in which we find out that
• 30:03
  payment has since died. You know that scene where like
• 30:06
  they go back and the daughter is like a figure and I, you know,
• 30:12
  they have to wear like headscarves and you know, all
• 30:15
  the appropriate ways they must interact and then remember and
• 30:18
  sort of remembering things from when she was younger, but not
• 30:21
  really. And then they do go to payment's
• 30:26
  wife's house and then it's like all fine.
• 30:30
  And then the wife just starts crying.
• 30:31
  And it was like nothing needed to even be said.
• 30:34
  Like it was just, I was really, I was really sad.
• 30:37
  I had this like almost like I was hoping like a hero type
• 30:41
  trope where like payment would come out of it, like with some
• 30:46
  scars, but like still alive. Like, I'm really sad.
• 30:51
  I'm really sad actually that he was dead.
• 30:53
  She goes back to her and visits her family and then she kind of
• 30:56
  gets that cultural experience. And there is a lot of like
• 30:59
  culture clash where even the language, like she tries not to
• 31:04
  answer the phone and when the phone rings because she's like,
• 31:07
  I don't my language isn't good enough.
• 31:10
  And like, everyone knows who she is because she was the cousin
• 31:14
  who left to Germany, but she's struggling to remember who
• 31:17
  everyone else is because they're all the Iranian cousins.
• 31:20
  They're all the Iranian aunts and uncles and family friends.
• 31:23
  So how is she supposed to remember all of these people?
• 31:28
  Which was a really like, it felt really authentic and the way
• 31:32
  that that was done. And then we like, there's little
• 31:35
  hints of like cultural stuff that we get where all the women
• 31:39
  are, are getting nose jobs. Are they fake having nose jobs?
• 31:42
  And because all of a sudden it's like really popular and which is
• 31:46
  really interesting way that these women are now in religious
• 31:54
  like suppressive government. Would you guys agree with that?
• 32:00
  That like they all have to like cover up like and she's worried
• 32:05
  whenever she's getting her passport picture that a little
• 32:08
  bit of her hair is like on display and she's like, am I
• 32:11
  going to be able to be let in to the country because of my
• 32:15
  passport picture like a wisp of my.
• 32:17
  Rebellious. A little bit in those moments
• 32:20
  where she's like, am I not gonna be let in because there's one
• 32:24
  strand or whatever? Like, she's given it thought,
• 32:26
  but I feel like it's almost her, like, teenage sassiness in a
• 32:29
  way. I do quite interesting, like the
• 32:31
  beauty standards as well. Like, and then when they all get
• 32:36
  excited to go to like, the beauty salon, like hairdressers.
• 32:40
  And then I made me laugh because there are moments where she's
• 32:43
  like, yeah, she's definitely a teenager where she gets her
• 32:45
  eyebrows and all waxed. And she's like, oh, I hopefully
• 32:47
  I'll make it home in time to see the boy I like, you know, so you
• 32:51
  can see my eyebrows like Michael, Irene and eyebrows.
• 32:56
  She gets introduced to payments on and they apparently when they
• 33:03
  were kids, they used to pretend to be boyfriend and girlfriend
• 33:08
  and now they're like reuniting again.
• 33:10
  And she's like, oh, hang on a second.
• 33:12
  I think I do like him. But she also keeps getting
• 33:17
  sexually assaulted by the men on the streets where they just keep
• 33:20
  like touching her. And it's never, we don't get a
• 33:25
  proper description of these, but it will just be things like
• 33:28
  we're walking inside and I feel something unlike my backside.
• 33:32
  And then she thinks, oh, is my cousin being treated like this
• 33:36
  as well? And like there's creepy men who
• 33:38
  are like sitting like staring at her.
• 33:40
  It's just it's so odd. I wonder if they're targeting
• 33:45
  her because she looks different since she has grown up in
• 33:50
  Germany or is this just how all the girls are treated in Iran?
• 33:56
  I know I wish that guy would have addressed that like a tiny
• 33:59
  bit more than just like throwing it in because it feels like it
• 34:02
  was making like also accusations too by all men.
• 34:05
  There's probably in every culture, there's probably people
• 34:08
  who would want to do that and would want to get away.
• 34:10
  Like, I mean, think about pubs and clubs 10 years ago, think
• 34:16
  about pubs and clubs five years ago here, you know, people were
• 34:20
  doing that kind of thing. And I think it's like a culture
• 34:22
  of silence. Let's those things continue.
• 34:25
  It's like those men, those probably quite few men know that
• 34:30
  they're going to get away with it.
• 34:32
  They know that that she's not going to turn.
• 34:34
  She's too young and she's not going to turn around and make a
• 34:36
  fuss. And if she does make a fuss,
• 34:40
  who's who's gonna suffer the consequences of her making a
• 34:43
  fuss? It's going to be her.
• 34:44
  It's going to be her family. So it's a win win situation if
• 34:48
  you're the type of man who wants to do that.
• 34:50
  So I don't know that it's necessarily like one culture has
• 34:53
  a particular amount of men that want to do that.
• 34:55
  I. Think that also relates back to,
• 34:56
  you know, when they go to get is it milkshakes or something and
• 35:00
  payments son, like they can't have openly said they arranged
• 35:05
  to meet him there. It just they have to make it
• 35:07
  look like they just randomly bumped into him.
• 35:10
  So is it like disapproving for men and women to meet up in
• 35:17
  social spaces? And like, I, I assumed that from
• 35:21
  the book, like, but I find their conversation like quite
• 35:25
  meaningful because I, you could see that his son is like he was.
• 35:30
  So he's like almost inspired as well.
• 35:33
  And the cousin seemed they're all quite like there's something
• 35:37
  they're like bubbling again, you know, or maybe it never really
• 35:41
  went away. But when payment son is talking
• 35:44
  about maybe going to Germany to study and I thought that was
• 35:47
  going to be a hint towards leader that he would join the
• 35:52
  daughter in Germany. I was hoping we'd get a bit more
• 35:56
  of payments then, but thought that I thought their discussion,
• 35:59
  the three of them together. I I, I love that little part.
• 36:03
  This is also where we get an insight into the political
• 36:07
  activism that has been happening in Iran, where all of the
• 36:09
  students went out and protested. Lucy, what do you not agree
• 36:15
  with? I don't agree with the way you
• 36:18
  say students every time you say a word in an American accent.
• 36:24
  I will respond accordingly. You.
• 36:28
  Haven't noticed that we've done that before like either.
• 36:31
  It's really funny that I hadn't overly noticed it until Lucy
• 36:35
  pointed. I think it was interesting for
• 36:39
  me that we were now getting two sides of the coin in terms of we
• 36:45
  were getting the political perspective of Germany and we
• 36:50
  were getting the political perspective of Iran and seeing
• 36:56
  how both are trying to like do no matter what culture you're
• 37:01
  in, you're always going to have people who are trying to speak
• 37:05
  out and better things. It's.
• 37:07
  Like the point to meet earlier this like role of students
• 37:09
  throughout like, and we have Bejad like being a teacher, you
• 37:17
  know, before. And then we've got and did
• 37:20
  anyone else think of back to when they were at uni or maybe
• 37:25
  like 18 or so and like political movements or something would be
• 37:30
  happening at home and you would get involved or signed
• 37:33
  petitions. And and I wanted to change the
• 37:36
  world. Like I wasn't a cynic as much as
• 37:39
  I am now, but I thought I was going to change the world by
• 37:42
  like joining a protest, signing a petition.
• 37:47
  Like I was like, we, I think that's the privilege we have
• 37:51
  here. Or we can go out and protest and
• 37:52
  things like that. Whereas it just seems like that
• 37:56
  comparison at that point in the novel with Germany and their
• 37:59
  ability to protest, whereas like the cousin and payment son, like
• 38:04
  that's their lives could be on the line here if they step by.
• 38:08
  You know, I just really like that comparison, and it's
• 38:11
  throughout the novel about students and their love for
• 38:14
  protesting. I'm going to throw a bit of a
• 38:17
  spanner in the works and I really did not enjoy this
• 38:21
  chapter, this section at all. I'm so sorry.
• 38:27
  I, I think part of it, part of it is the, the teenage element.
• 38:36
  I, I struggled massively with it in reading.
• 38:40
  I always find it really slightly jarring and I don't often think
• 38:44
  it works very well. And I think that as combined
• 38:47
  with the multiple, multiple parts, I thought a lot of it,
• 38:51
  like there's a lot of exposition.
• 38:54
  There's a lot of I, I really did not enjoy the writing in this
• 39:00
  part at all. I I feel bad about it, but I
• 39:05
  just was like, I cannot. It was really losing me at
• 39:10
  times. I was like, this is I gave it up
• 39:12
  for ages in the middle of this one because I was like I I
• 39:15
  can't, it's really not got me at all And I like, I don't know.
• 39:22
  I just find especially like a bit of a time jump.
• 39:25
  It's like people are explaining certain things and it was a bit
• 39:28
  like is the word ham fisted? I think I've said that a few
• 39:31
  times today, but it's a bit like clunky the way things are
• 39:34
  brought in and I didn't enjoy that.
• 39:38
  And I, yeah, I just, I genuinely hit point of view from, from a
• 39:42
  teenager. There's always just something a
• 39:43
  bit off about it. I feel like as a teenager
• 39:46
  reading people writing about teenagers, I've often find it
• 39:51
  really off and I still find it really like, this isn't quite
• 39:55
  right. And that is definitely, I didn't
• 39:58
  feel like, oh, I remember feeling like this.
• 40:01
  I liked the first chapter. I didn't hit the second one, but
• 40:04
  I was like in my head, I was like, when's when are we moving
• 40:06
  on? Like when's the next person?
• 40:08
  And then when we got to your girl, I was like, no, no, when's
• 40:12
  the next person? And then when we got to him, I
• 40:13
  was like, that was it was like every so often I was reading a
• 40:17
  couple of pages and then like, I remember one one night I sat and
• 40:22
  I read a couple of pages. The next day I was like, I don't
• 40:26
  even remember reading this, but I was reading it and not, you
• 40:29
  know, the way sometimes you do gloss over a book and you're
• 40:31
  like, you've read a page and you're like, Oh, I actually
• 40:33
  haven't read that. And then you have to go back and
• 40:35
  read. I usually kind of know when I've
• 40:36
  done that, but I just had no memory like later.
• 40:39
  I, I just think this, just this just book was not for me.
• 40:43
  It's absolutely not for me. And I'm, I'm, it is, I'm really
• 40:46
  happy that other people like it and that it's really good for
• 40:50
  them. But this, it was not for me.
• 40:52
  Let's dive into part four, 2009. MO, who is the brother of Lala.
• 40:57
  MO is in university and he's 23. I think he's quite a lost
• 41:03
  character to me. I think he's in between.
• 41:07
  I think he's yeah, he's just there, like right along, riding
• 41:11
  along like he. He's got his friend who is some
• 41:16
  white guy, I presume German. I can't remember his name but.
• 41:21
  Toby. Toby this felt like a return to
• 41:25
  the first part with his father but through him modern day.
• 41:30
  And so we have Toby, who likes a girl, She is like no part of
• 41:36
  their life. And then he is like, he develops
• 41:39
  this relationship with the girl, but it's a weird, odd
• 41:42
  relationship where she keeps sleeping in his bed rather than
• 41:46
  with Toby. But they're not a thing.
• 41:50
  What? What did you guys think of that?
• 41:52
  I thought that was very odd. I thought exactly what you just
• 41:56
  said there, but I didn't really think much about it because I
• 41:59
  didn't really care. I really like the MO has a
• 42:02
  hatred of protests as well because he's like has that
• 42:06
  experience and all with his dad where he's like, this isn't
• 42:09
  real, like student fees and all things like that.
• 42:15
  And I think he's a bit lost because he feels like he just
• 42:20
  doesn't fit in either. There's this one particular part
• 42:24
  we know that I love to relate things back to my own life.
• 42:27
  But they're at a party and someone in is asking him a
• 42:32
  question of like where he's from and asking him maybe about Iran
• 42:36
  or something. And it just made me think back
• 42:38
  to when I was in Bath and people would be like, oh, you're from
• 42:42
  you're from Belfast. Like, can I ask you a question?
• 42:44
  Like, are you a member of said terrorist organization?
• 42:48
  And I'm thinking in this day and age, are people not really that
• 42:52
  aware that that is so insensitive?
• 42:55
  And that part made me laugh because it just made me think
• 42:58
  back to my own situation where like people are just so stupid
• 43:02
  and don't even think about what they're saying sometimes.
• 43:04
  I remember I used to have to like sell things to people from
• 43:10
  the South. And I remember like this one guy
• 43:14
  was like, you know, things are, things are really getting better
• 43:17
  for you guys. I was like, why do you think I
• 43:20
  was born? Like what what's happened here?
• 43:23
  Like what conversation we have? And I was like, I was born in
• 43:25
  1992, like, and he's getting on like, I'm across the barricades
• 43:30
  like. There is one part of the book as
• 43:33
  well, or, you know, Toby's girlfriend and MO just doesn't.
• 43:36
  He's like, I just don't like her.
• 43:38
  But then they start, you know, forming that like somewhat of a
• 43:42
  relationship. But it centres round watching
• 43:45
  the news because MO is also still keeping up with the news,
• 43:48
  like that tradition that his dad does.
• 43:50
  Toby's girlfriend is really interested in Egypt and what's
• 43:55
  going on there. And then they start bonding
• 43:58
  over, watching like YouTube clips and things like that.
• 44:01
  I was wondering if they were going to mention the Arab
• 44:05
  uprising because for some reason that had such a big part in 2011
• 44:09
  for me about politics. And I just started studying.
• 44:13
  I can't remember even what topic we got on to, but that was the
• 44:18
  constant thing. We kept referencing and that.
• 44:20
  And I just was like, oh, I fully remember that moment and
• 44:26
  watching everything. And it felt like a big moment
• 44:28
  for me because I was finally getting into politics and really
• 44:32
  understanding it. So I like that they like
• 44:35
  incorporated that in and this whole idea about Facebook as
• 44:39
  well of trying to connect to the other family.
• 44:42
  But what did you guys think? I don't, I, I remember the is an
• 44:45
  Arab Spring very well, but I don't know that I remember the,
• 44:49
  the Iranian 2009 thing at all. I have no recollection of it.
• 44:55
  But I did definitely remember like all the other stuff.
• 44:57
  I remember that happening. And I do remember like YouTube
• 45:00
  videos and all. Like it was kind of like a
• 45:01
  media, like a social media revolution because I suppose
• 45:05
  like we never saw like the Prague Spring or any of those
• 45:09
  other things. Like so, but like, yeah.
• 45:12
  And like you, Hannah, I always did like politics and in school
• 45:15
  and I was kind of really interested in all that stuff
• 45:19
  like throughout mainly like European history because that's
• 45:22
  the main history and politics that you do in here.
• 45:27
  Like you don't really, I didn't do much Middle Eastern stuff at
• 45:30
  all. If you're so jaded about like
• 45:32
  political activism because it's like you create this space and
• 45:37
  you have actually no control over who takes over that space.
• 45:40
  And it could be, you know, like in the 1953 revolution in Iran,
• 45:46
  it could just be the the British and Americans who just come in
• 45:49
  and they decide they put like puppets with a string up.
• 45:53
  And it's like there's something so soul destroying.
• 45:56
  And it does make you think like, do we can we make a difference?
• 46:00
  Like, I know there's examples in history where we have, but it's
• 46:02
  kind of like, yeah, you can make a difference to overthrow
• 46:06
  someone, to replace them with someone else if he's just as bad
• 46:09
  or in a different way, bad. You know, and especially
• 46:12
  considering that this book was written, was it written in 2016?
• 46:15
  Do I make that up? It would, yeah.
• 46:17
  Release in 2016. And then we know the context of
• 46:21
  Iran now, and it's like, it's just so horrible.
• 46:24
  Just back to what you had said, Hannah, about how MO has been
• 46:27
  watching the news. Here's a quote from that where
• 46:32
  he says, then Miriam and I watched the news.
• 46:36
  I remember, I don't even know her.
• 46:38
  And already we're doing something that intimate
• 46:40
  together. And I think that's really
• 46:42
  interesting how he thinks that's a really intimate act.
• 46:45
  And then he goes on to talk about how Toby now sits with
• 46:49
  them to watch the news, and Toby's not interested in the
• 46:53
  news, but if he knows that it will be be beneficial to MO that
• 46:59
  they all sit down and watch the news together, then he will do
• 47:02
  that. And I thought that was a really
• 47:04
  nice, like, brotherly, like brotherhood kind of thing for
• 47:06
  him to do. And it's like such a simple act.
• 47:09
  At this point of the novel, I felt like a sad tinge.
• 47:13
  Umm because we now see the relationship with MO and his
• 47:18
  parents and his siblings. They're quite detached in a way
• 47:22
  where it's like his mom and all will call and he's like, Yep,
• 47:26
  everything's fine. Yep, I've eaten pasta today or
• 47:28
  whatever, you know, that's it. And it made me think, if they
• 47:32
  were back in Iran with that big family where everyone knows
• 47:37
  everyone and everything is going on with that, would their
• 47:40
  relationship be a bit different because they would just know so
• 47:42
  much about each other? Or is that just me overthinking
• 47:47
  it? But it just seems so sad because
• 47:48
  he reflects at one point in the book where he's talking about
• 47:51
  how they all used to be so close and then there's almost this
• 47:56
  distance now I. Feel like there was a lot of I
• 48:00
  don't know if X position is the right word but it's like
• 48:02
  explaining of what the other ones are doing that I find
• 48:05
  really clunky and annoying and I don't know exactly why I found
• 48:08
  this clunky and annoying. I think there should be a new
• 48:10
  feature where I do up my worst line in a book because I always
• 48:14
  find a couple in books where I'm like, are you serious?
• 48:17
  I don't really know why I hate it.
• 48:19
  So it's it's hard to be like, why do I not like this?
• 48:22
  But it's like he's talking about Lolly and he's going you left
• 48:26
  school with top marks, you graduated with top Marks and you
• 48:30
  know, you're on this textbook career path and architecture.
• 48:33
  And I was like, I hate that line.
• 48:36
  That is an awful line. It's just like it just
• 48:41
  trivializes sibling rivalry because I don't think people
• 48:44
  have like I have older siblings that are more qualified than me
• 48:48
  and better people generally than me, but I rarely do I have a
• 48:51
  line in my head that will be like an air on this career
• 48:55
  trajector. Like I don't people don't think
• 48:57
  like that. Like, yeah, it really warmed me
• 49:01
  up. And I think there's a lot of
• 49:02
  lines like that throughout the book.
• 49:04
  But I just remember being like, seriously, it was like something
• 49:08
  from like a a different style of book, maybe was my issue there.
• 49:12
  But there was, there were so many like references back to
• 49:16
  different people that I was like, this is so there's
• 49:19
  something really clunky about this and really like unnatural,
• 49:21
  but I don't know if it is actually clunky and it's just
• 49:25
  the way I'm thinking. I thought it was interesting
• 49:27
  because we really get a lot about MO talking about how he's
• 49:31
  unwashed and how he smells his own sweat and his armpits.
• 49:37
  And that made me really grossed out then for when and Miriam was
• 49:44
  going to sleep in his bed because he would say things
• 49:48
  like, oh, I just woke up because the stench of my armpits was so
• 49:52
  strong. And I'm like why is she
• 49:54
  purposefully going to go sleep in his bed like do?
• 49:58
  You know what I loved? I loved it when he just turned
• 50:01
  around and gave her head a sniff.
• 50:05
  Oh. Yeah, and he says, he says it
• 50:09
  just smelled like scalp. And he was disappointed, that
• 50:12
  is. That's like, see, see if you
• 50:15
  woke up to someone and they'd sniffed your head and you're
• 50:17
  like, what are you? What are you doing sniffing your
• 50:18
  head? And you're like, it smells like
• 50:19
  scalp. I actually think, I don't know
• 50:24
  that there's a type of like a level of fear that would be
• 50:27
  higher of there's a serial killer in bed with me right now.
• 50:31
  Like what does this scalp even smell like?
• 50:34
  The reason why this book isn't A5 out of five for me is because
• 50:37
  of this. I think I don't understand why
• 50:41
  Tara didn't get a bigger chapter.
• 50:44
  Like I just feel like it was really rude to like not let
• 50:48
  explore her life a bit more. I feel like it was very rushed
• 50:52
  and thrown in. OK, OK, can I answer this for
• 50:54
  you? So Tara is the the character
• 50:57
  that we focus on. So that's the the youngest
• 50:59
  sibling. Hannah, let me answer your.
• 51:01
  Can I just wait? Firstly, I don't think it's 10
• 51:03
  years in the future. I think it's a lot.
• 51:05
  It's. Not.
• 51:06
  Yeah. It's it's just in the future.
• 51:09
  It's not. It hasn't.
• 51:12
  It's after 2016 when this book was written.
• 51:14
  So there's nothing to write about.
• 51:17
  This is an imaginary ending. So you can't, you can't expand
• 51:21
  on what actually happened because there isn't.
• 51:26
  You don't have that knowledge. And if she would, I think, be
• 51:30
  doing a disservice to that story, to that aspect of the
• 51:33
  story, if she imagined fake technology and if she imagined
• 51:37
  fake cultural stuff and political stuff.
• 51:42
  So she gave us enough to tell us she is.
• 51:46
  We're chiming in with her whenever she has experienced
• 51:51
  another like revolution and but it's not ten years in the
• 51:56
  future. It's just the future at some
• 51:58
  stage. Well, we're.
• 51:59
  Assuming that Layla's child is born and is old enough to be
• 52:05
  having a proper conversation, like teenage late teens.
• 52:08
  And so I actually really like this bit because I thought this
• 52:12
  is quite a nice thing that this woman has written about
• 52:17
  obviously the the revolution and everything and all Irani Iranian
• 52:22
  history is like kind of condensed from 1979 in this
• 52:26
  book. And what I really loved was the
• 52:30
  fact that she's clearly has so much hope and the hope that
• 52:35
  they'll be this call and this phone call or like something not
• 52:38
  called like videos or some way where they're going to find out
• 52:42
  actually like everything that your parents sacrificed,
• 52:44
  everything that they grew up with.
• 52:47
  Like, I can't imagine that. Like, it's a really hard thing
• 52:49
  to imagine, but I really, really enjoyed that element of like, I,
• 52:55
  I felt like we really got the author in that.
• 52:57
  Like, that's her going. I have hope, which is quite
• 53:02
  crushing considering stuff that has happened though, though in
• 53:05
  some ways I imagine some refugee or people of Iranian ancestry
• 53:12
  around the world. I think a lot of people, a lot
• 53:14
  of them will be quite happy with some elements of things that
• 53:17
  have happened in the last few months, but a lot of people
• 53:22
  won't be happy. Imagine her parents would not be
• 53:25
  happy with the current way things are going.
• 53:27
  It's just so horrible with our current knowledge.
• 53:30
  Like the whole thing with this last bit.
• 53:32
  But I thought that was like a really like interesting and
• 53:36
  quite beautiful, like sliver of hope.
• 53:40
  So that was why it was, I think it's my favorite part of the
• 53:42
  book. I'm sorry, Hannah.
• 53:45
  So I don't even, I am not saying that this chapter was bad, I
• 53:49
  just think I wanted a bit more about Tara, like even on 10
• 53:54
  extra pages, a bit more about her life.
• 53:56
  Because obviously when we know that the mother is pregnant and
• 54:02
  then we don't overly find out a lot about her.
• 54:07
  And I just thought this was the chance to get to know her a bit
• 54:11
  more. But I do find I do really enjoy
• 54:14
  the chapter. I just think I just wanted a bit
• 54:17
  more of her. I thought it was a really good
• 54:20
  ending to a book. In all fairness, it was a bit of
• 54:22
  a saving grace for me. Unfortunately, as Hannah has
• 54:25
  said, it's very short and I feel like that the section with the
• 54:28
  brother and sister was way too long.
• 54:32
  I just like, I can't remember if this is in this chapter, but the
• 54:36
  idea that the parents are getting back involved more with
• 54:40
  their activism, like going out to protest and things again.
• 54:43
  Like it's that point where I think they almost feel
• 54:45
  comfortable that they can be outspoken.
• 54:47
  Like once again, not in the way that they once were, but that I
• 54:51
  guess westernized way of going to protest and then being able
• 54:56
  to just go home at the end of the day.
• 54:58
  I'd like that they get more involved again.
• 55:01
  Let's have a reader than eat it because I have been sitting here
• 55:04
  this entire time with a plate full of saffron cookies.
• 55:08
  Which? They look really good.
• 55:10
  Yeah, it's what they were served whenever they went back to to
• 55:14
  Iran. And so I, I made them.
• 55:18
  I honestly don't know if they're going to be good because in the
• 55:21
  book we find out that they're not very good.
• 55:23
  Are you doing a live taste test? I am.
• 55:25
  It almost looks like honeycomb like in color it's saffron that.
• 55:33
  Was it hard to make? No, it was very easy to make.
• 55:35
  Is it expensive with the saffron and?
• 55:37
  I just use an entire thing of saffron.
• 55:39
  I didn't see saffron. Expensive.
• 55:42
  Yeah, that was also a plot point in the book.
• 55:44
  It's one of the most expensive spices, isn't it, in the world?
• 55:47
  Yeah. Oh, Iron Bride, kilogram bags of
• 55:51
  saffron in. They kind of smell odd to me
• 55:54
  because I've never I don't even know if I've had saffron before.
• 55:58
  Oh, his facial expressions are undetermined.
• 56:03
  I'm not a fan. I mean, it's it's not bad.
• 56:05
  Like I I could eat the rest of this.
• 56:08
  Well, since this is a book club, we want to hear from some of you
• 56:11
  who've read this book too. We've got a message from the
• 56:14
  lovely Maya. I think the structure of the
• 56:16
  book worked really well. It was really interesting
• 56:19
  following this one family through generations.
• 56:22
  I enjoyed the whole book, but I really enjoyed particularly the
• 56:25
  chapters from the perspectives of the children, Lala and MO,
• 56:29
  because the author was describing through them how
• 56:32
  there's this sort of removal from one's parents cultures and
• 56:39
  how they actually didn't know as much about Iran as they would
• 56:45
  like to because their parents, I suppose sort of trying to
• 56:49
  protect them were not really giving that them that much
• 56:53
  information. So that was a really interesting
• 56:55
  perspective to read, I guess, how children of immigrants,
• 57:01
  probably particularly children of refugees who have fled from
• 57:07
  oppressive regimes, how they can feel quite removed, I guess,
• 57:12
  from the culture and the country their parents grew up in.
• 57:17
  And obviously the children didn't see their parents as
• 57:21
  young revolutionaries in in Iran.
• 57:26
  They've only seen them as immigrants in a new European
• 57:30
  country where they're trying maybe to not stand out too much
• 57:34
  and follow the rules, etcetera. And I thought that there was
• 57:37
  some really interesting observations there in the
• 57:40
  children seeing these sort of very well behaved parents and
• 57:46
  almost docile parents. And trying to sort of compare
• 57:52
  that to the image that they also have heard of but never seen
• 57:57
  with their own eyes of these young activists who were really
• 58:01
  at the front lines of a revolution and who had to flee
• 58:06
  because of persecutions. Let's read this book guys and
• 58:10
  give our bookies odds on whether we or whether or not we think
• 58:14
  this book will win. So I'm going to start us off
• 58:17
  when I read the book and I was like, oh wow, this is one that's
• 58:21
  like usually we all know my criteria by night.
• 58:24
  If it sits with me for longer, you know, I've read it.
• 58:27
  I still think about it. It's sitting with me.
• 58:29
  I like want to give it a really high rating.
• 58:31
  So initially I was like 4.5 because I, I think the .5 that
• 58:37
  was missing at the time was I wanted more Tara because I just
• 58:40
  thought I need more of her. But actually I'm going to give
• 58:44
  it a four out of five. And something that Lucy had said
• 58:48
  is just really stuck with me. When I think back to the writing
• 58:51
  style of like the books, like the The Witch, I just think
• 58:57
  there's more. Not that it's more creative, but
• 58:59
  I just love that style as well. But so I think if there was a
• 59:05
  little bit more of that, like a more maybe sophistication or
• 59:09
  something in this book, the writing style a bit more, I
• 59:12
  would have definitely given it at 4.5.
• 59:14
  But I definitely love this story like plot more than I love the
• 59:19
  writing style. So I'm going to stick with my
• 59:21
  solid 4. It is my winner out of all the
• 59:25
  five that I've read this year. But I wanted to it, but my
• 59:31
  opinion is it's not going to win because of the current political
• 59:34
  climate. I am going to give this four out
• 59:38
  of five and I think it's my winner out of all of these
• 59:44
  books. I'm not saying it's my favorite,
• 59:46
  and plot wise it's not, but I gained a lot from reading it.
• 59:53
  So much insight. I knew basically nothing about
• 59:56
  Iran before this and now I feel like I at least understand some
• 1:00:01
  of the basics. It really felt like Taiwan
• 1:00:04
  travelogue throughout. And I know I haven't brought up
• 1:00:08
  this point yet, but whenever we had discussed Taiwan travelogue,
• 1:00:13
  I had kind of. Said it's about translation.
• 1:00:19
  It's an insight into culture that like you wouldn't get in an
• 1:00:25
  orig in a book originally written in English.
• 1:00:29
  And I think that we get that with this as well.
• 1:00:31
  Now, I know this book was written in German, but it was
• 1:00:35
  written from the Iranian perspective and it's a very
• 1:00:40
  unique perspective that you wouldn't get unless it's from
• 1:00:46
  someone who who has a background from that culture and kind of
• 1:00:49
  lived through that. And on top of that, we do get
• 1:00:52
  the translation aspect as well because you have these people
• 1:00:56
  who have moved from Iran and now they're trying to adapt to a new
• 1:01:00
  language, a new culture. So I think it still hits all of
• 1:01:04
  those points. The Taiwan travelogue hit maybe
• 1:01:07
  not as explicitly, but it's, it's still is there.
• 1:01:10
  So I think this outranks Taiwan travelogue and I think this is
• 1:01:13
  actually going to win. But it could be either one of
• 1:01:16
  those for me, I, I don't think there's any other book that
• 1:01:19
  we've read so far or that I've read so far that could win,
• 1:01:24
  unless it's this one or. Taiwan travelogue.
• 1:01:27
  I feel bad about this because but I have to give my honest
• 1:01:32
  opinion and I didn't enjoy the book and it would be unfair to
• 1:01:36
  books that I've read it like I can't.
• 1:01:40
  Yeah, yeah. Oh God, I feel bad doing this.
• 1:01:44
  I had to give this a two. Sorry everyone.
• 1:01:49
  And I know that I am a style over substance person.
• 1:01:55
  And for me, I think that this book, the only bit that I really
• 1:02:03
  enjoyed was the end, the only bit that I was like, this is
• 1:02:06
  doing something different. This is actually for the last
• 1:02:10
  pages at the end of the book. I was like, oh, this is quite
• 1:02:12
  creative. This is quite.
• 1:02:14
  That was when I was like, yeah, OK.
• 1:02:17
  I I felt like I connected with the book at that point.
• 1:02:21
  And the rest of it, I, I find the, the first part quite
• 1:02:27
  informational and the plot was good, but I didn't love the
• 1:02:30
  writing. And then the rest of it, it was
• 1:02:32
  a mix of I didn't enjoy the plot and I didn't enjoy the writing,
• 1:02:36
  which is, you know, kind of necessary for for me.
• 1:02:41
  And I definitely didn't feel, and I, I do feel bad of it
• 1:02:44
  because it's obviously about an extremely emotional experience
• 1:02:48
  that people have. But for some reason the writing
• 1:02:51
  kept me from that and kept me from that experience, which I, I
• 1:02:53
  imagine other people have. And I genuinely think I'm like
• 1:02:58
  this, this. It could be also that I just
• 1:03:01
  read this at a strange time or, you know, like there's so many
• 1:03:03
  things that affect the book. But for me, this, this really
• 1:03:07
  didn't did not hit anything really.
• 1:03:12
  So yeah, that's a is that? That's the lowest I've ever
• 1:03:15
  rated something on this. Join the book club and read
• 1:03:17
  along with us. The next book we're tackling on
• 1:03:20
  the shortlist is the final one, and it is the Director by Daniel
• 1:03:25
  Kellerman and it's translated by Ross Benjamin.
• 1:03:29
  If you liked our discussion on this book then you might like
• 1:03:31
  our episode on There's no other episodes on something similar,
• 1:03:36
  so just just just pick one at random.
• 1:03:39
  Just Scroll down, take a book, listen to it.
• 1:03:43
  Odds are that I'll have liked the book and everyone else won't
• 1:03:46
  have. Our socials and e-mail are in
• 1:03:49
  the description. Share your thoughts on the
• 1:03:51
  shortlist, subscribe wherever you get your podcast, and rate
• 1:03:54
  US five stars. Let's end on a quote from The
• 1:03:57
  Nights Are Quiet in Tehran. These are the things I'd be
• 1:04:01
  doing if I was there. These are the things that have
• 1:04:05
  to be done because people like my parents aren't there any
• 1:04:07
  longer. But it is.
• 1:04:09
  My parents fight. They're continuing.
• 1:04:11
  And my father is the one who should be there to see.
• 1:04:14
  Your fight never failed. It just had to be put on hold.
• 1:04:18
  Peggy Zai, goodbye. Bye.