Disoriental

February 26, 2018
Djavadi’s momentous first novel is a both a multigenerational family saga and a history of modern Iran. Narrated by 25-year-old Kimia Sadr, the story opens in 1996 in a fertility clinic in Paris, but Kimia’s Iranian ancestors’ stories take over right there in the waiting room, careening back and forth in time. Many generations of Sadrs make appearances: a great-grandfather obsessed with blue-eyed descendants, a grandmother born in a harem, uncles known numerically by birth order. When Kimia is still quite young, her journalist father, the blue-eyed Darius Sadr, is forced to flee Iran after his outspoken criticism, first of the shah, and then of Khomeini. In 1981, when Kimia is 10, she, her sisters, and her mother, Sara, cross dangerous mountains on horseback to join Darius in Paris, where their home becomes a dangerous hub of expat dissident activity. Kimia rebels, traveling Europe looking for a new self in debauchery and punk rock. Violence, meanwhile, follows the family to Europe, with tragic consequences. The novel convincingly and powerfully explores the enormous weight of one’s family and culture on individual identity, especially the exile’s.

February 1, 2018

Kimia Sadr sits alone in a Parisian fertility clinic, a tube of scientifically modified sperm on her lap, waiting for the chronically late Dr. Gautier and the procedure that will unite her with her family's DNA chain. A wryly funny narrator, Kimia passes the time reflecting on her roots in Persia, beginning with her great-grandfather's court in Mazandaran and the day that twins were born to the last of his 52 wives. In a tour de force of storytelling, screenwriter and debut novelist Djavadi deftly weaves together the history of 20th-century Iran, from the CIA-orchestrated overthrow of the democratically elected Mohammad Mossadegh, through the installation of the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, to the revolution and the harsh rule of the Ayatollah, with the spellbinding chronicle of her own ancestors. Kimia's father Darius and mother Sara, dissident writers whose work garners the attention of the security services, will be smuggled from their homeland to France, where they struggle with the disorientation of exile. Meanwhile, Kimia, questioning her sexuality and her place in the family, suffers her own form of disorientation. VERDICT Already the recipient of multiple prizes in France, this enchanting novel, well translated and with surprises and delights on every page, perfectly blends historical fact with contemporary themes.--Sally Bissell, formerly with Lee Cty. Lib. Syst., Fort Myers, FL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2018
French-Iranian screenwriter Djavadi blends the fates of individuals and families with the history of modern Iran in this award-winning debut novel about exile, integration, and the human cost of political opposition.Narrated by Kimia Sadr, youngest daughter in a family of intellectuals and political dissidents, the narrative jumps from a contemporary fertility clinic in Paris to her childhood in Iran. "I'm the granddaughter of a woman born in a harem," she explains, recounting the dramatic birth, during a windstorm, of blue-eyed Nour, who later bears six sons in an arranged marriage, reads Dostoevsky, eventually leaves her husband, and dies the day Kimia is born. History, both familial and national, swirls across every page. Djavadi works hard to keep the reader oriented within the welter of stories and characters: "Just be patient a little bit longer, dear Reader." "Since we can, let's jump on a literary magic carpet and zip through time and space." Well-placed footnotes help, the tone often gently mocking. Though there's plenty of tragedy here, there's humor as well. "Life is such that, even in the darkest depths of the drama, there is always still a little room left for the absurd." One of the narrator's recurring frustrations, which Djavadi conveys bitingly well, is Western ignorance about Iran. Woven into the gripping depictions of political unrest, family crises, national upheaval, and personal secrets is an excellent primer on the history of modern Iran. Djavadi knows her material cold and every scene rings true, from the bombing of the family's Tehran apartment by the secret police, to an escape across the mountains of Kurdistan on horseback to their reception at the French Embassy in Istanbul. Most affecting of all is her hard-won understanding of exile: "To really integrate into a culture...you have to disintegrate first." It is through the tales of her family that the narrator survives. Of her forebears Kimia says, "After so much time and distance, it's not their world that flows in my veins anymore, or their languages or traditions or beliefs, or even their fears, but their stories."Authentic, ambitious, richly layered, and very readable.

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Starred review from February 1, 2018
We meet Kimia in a fertility-clinic office. She is alone, waiting with a tube of sperm, for the chance to become a mother. She has already lied to the fertility-clinic staff about her intentions to marry the man whose sperm she carries, but the reason for her deception is not immediately clear. What is obvious from the beginning of this riveting novel is that Djavadi is an immensely gifted storyteller, and Kimia's tale is especially compelling. The winner of multiple awards in France, this debut novel in translation follows the fortunes of one Iranian family from the dawn of the twentieth century through the revolution and their Parisian exile. The youngest of three daughters, Kimia was still a child when her family fled Iran, crossing the Turkish border under cover of night. Her father, a journalist and political dissident who played a role in the start of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, fought the extremist regime with a passion that culminated in a tragedy the family can only refer to as THE EVENT. But the roots of their story go back much further, to her great-grandfather and the harem of wives he kept on his land near the Caspian Sea. Kimia unthreads the narratives of her family history, and the shaping of her own identity, with the insight and verve of a master storyteller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)