![]() ![]() On a trip to the doctor with Zahra in the wealthy northern suburbs, they bump into Maysi, a servant to the aristocratic Ferdowsi family for whom Zahra also used to work. Eventually, the neglect is so bad that Aria develops trachoma. ![]() Named by Behrouz after the operatic term for song, although Aria is also an Iranian boy’s name, she refuses to be cowed by her stepmother’s brutality and remains defiant. Most individuals would crumble under such an onslaught, but not Aria. Whenever Behrouz is called away on duty, Zahra beats Aria, deprives her of food and locks her outside the house on its balcony. His wife, Zahra, takes against Aria for her red hair and blue-green eyes-she must be a djinn and will bring bad luck. Unfortunately for Aria, Behrouz’s home is no haven. Motherless himself, he feels compelled to rescue the squalling infant. By chance, Behrouz, a Muslim driver in the Iranian army, passes by at the critical moment. As a newborn, she is abandoned and left to die by her mother under a mulberry tree in the streets of 1950s Tehran. This debut novel by Nazanine Hozar could easily be just another slice of “misery lit” if its eponymous heroine weren’t such a firecracker.Īria’s life initially is dire indeed. ![]()
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