“A highly recommended literary page-turner worth a second reading; fans of Gabriel García Márquez will delight in this fantastical—and fantastic novel.”—Library Journal, starred review
"Impactful . . . Araghi’s skillful combination of revolutionary politics and magical realism will please fans of Alejo Carpentier."—Publishers Weekly
A sweeping, multigenerational epic, this stunning debut heralds the arrival of a unique new literary voice.
As a child living in his family's apple orchard, Ahmad Torkash-Vand treasures his great-great-great-great grandfather's every mesmerizing word. On the day of his father's death, Ahmad listens closely as the seemingly immortal elder tells him the tale of a centuries-old family curse . . . and the boy's own fated role in the story.
Ahmad grows up to suspect that something must be interfering with his family, as he struggles to hold them together through decades of famine, loss, and political turmoil in Iran. As the world transforms around him, each turn of Ahmad's life is a surprise: from street brawler, to father of two unusually gifted daughters; from radical poet, to politician with a target on his back. These lives, and the many unforgettable stories alongside his, converge and catch fire at the center of the Revolution.
Exploring the brutality of history while conjuring the astonishment of magical realism, The Immortals of Tehran is a novel about the incantatory power of words and the revolutionary sparks of love, family, and poetry--set against the indifferent, relentless march of time.
Genre: Literary Fiction
"Impactful . . . Araghi’s skillful combination of revolutionary politics and magical realism will please fans of Alejo Carpentier."—Publishers Weekly
A sweeping, multigenerational epic, this stunning debut heralds the arrival of a unique new literary voice.
As a child living in his family's apple orchard, Ahmad Torkash-Vand treasures his great-great-great-great grandfather's every mesmerizing word. On the day of his father's death, Ahmad listens closely as the seemingly immortal elder tells him the tale of a centuries-old family curse . . . and the boy's own fated role in the story.
Ahmad grows up to suspect that something must be interfering with his family, as he struggles to hold them together through decades of famine, loss, and political turmoil in Iran. As the world transforms around him, each turn of Ahmad's life is a surprise: from street brawler, to father of two unusually gifted daughters; from radical poet, to politician with a target on his back. These lives, and the many unforgettable stories alongside his, converge and catch fire at the center of the Revolution.
Exploring the brutality of history while conjuring the astonishment of magical realism, The Immortals of Tehran is a novel about the incantatory power of words and the revolutionary sparks of love, family, and poetry--set against the indifferent, relentless march of time.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"Araghi’s is the Iran of One Thousand and One Nights and he is our Scheherazade, the tale he’s telling is magnificent, brutal, spellbinding, as well as being—like Scheherazade’s—crucial to survival." - Kathryn Davis
"An amazing literary debut that reads like the work of a master. Ali Araghi has created a powerful, touching story about the intersection of love, art and politics, and how they reverberate across generations. This is a book that is both timeless and for our troubled times, a portrait of contemporary Iranian history as seen through the eyes of those who have experienced it--it should be required reading in the United States." - Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
"An amazing literary debut that reads like the work of a master. Ali Araghi has created a powerful, touching story about the intersection of love, art and politics, and how they reverberate across generations. This is a book that is both timeless and for our troubled times, a portrait of contemporary Iranian history as seen through the eyes of those who have experienced it--it should be required reading in the United States." - Saïd Sayrafiezadeh
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