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"Iran in the 1950s is wealthy in oil but riven by divisions of class, ethnicity, and religion, and its corrupt government is under foreign influence. At this volatile moment, an illiterate driver rescues a redheaded, blue-eyed baby girl who has been abandoned in a Tehran alley and names her Aria. When he can no longer care for her, he finds her a new home, setting her on an unlikely path from extreme deprivation to a life of privilege. Along the way, Aria acquires three mother figures with secrets of their own: one who abuses her, one who adopts her, and one whose role in her life is initially mysterious. At university, Aria is drawn ever further from her poverty-stricken past, until the 1979 revolution brings her various worlds violently together again. She and her friends are swept up in the excitement and danger as the shah is overthrown, but the final stage of the revolution will bring the Ayatollah Khomeini to power at the head of a brutal theocracy--just as Aria has become a mother herself. Nazanine Hozar's stunning debut gives us an unusually intimate view of a momentous time, through the eyes of a young woman coming to terms with the mysteries of her own past and future"--… (more)
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Aria was abandoned as an infant on a street in Tehran. Fortunately a soldier walking home to the apartment he shares with his wife found her in the nick of time. He took her home and named her Aria. While he is often away in the army camp his wife, Zahra, looks after Aria but she neglects her and Aria ends up with trachoma, an eye infection that can cause blindness if untreated. Zahra has to take Aria to the other side of the city for treatment and she certainly resents this "wasting" of her time. On one trip she runs across a woman that she used to work with in a wealthy family's home. The woman still works in the same house for Fereshteh and persuades Zahra to come for tea with Aria. Fereshteh and her family were Zoroastrians but all of the family members took Muslim names in order to fit in. Fereshteh is still wealthy and she often helps people in need. When she sees Aria's condition she is concerned and when her servant finds Aria alone in the apartment one day Fereshteh takes Aria into her home. With this turn of fortune Aria becomes educated and develops new friendships with two schoolmates. However she never forgets the neighbour boy who used to bring her bracelets. The man who found her keeps in touch but Zahra essentially abandons her. Fereshteh ensures that Aria helps people who have not been as lucky as she and sends her to help a poor Jewish family with four young girls. Although Aria intially hates going to this house she continues to visit and she helps one daughter learn to read who then manages to get a school certificate. As a background to Aria's life the political situation is going from a rather liberal style (as long as one does not run afoul of the Shah) to the conservative Muslim totalitarianism of the Ayatollah Khomeini and his fellow clerics. The ending is abrupt and will not satisfy those people who like everything wrapped up in a neat bow but it does allow the reader to ponder what might happen to Aria in the future.
I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in fiction set in an interesting place and time.