Carrying her home to the impoverished tenements of the southern city, Behrouz – an army driver who, as a motherless boy, pretended to be a mother himself – names her Aria. She is definitely an exciting addition to Canadian fiction.U nwanted by her father and so abandoned by her mother, in 1953 a baby girl is found under a mulberry tree in wealthy north Tehran. The book is over 400 pages but never drags and there were very few weak points or sections I could have done without. Hozar has a strong and compelling voice and tells the story well. Aria is an interesting character to follow, not quite likeable but strong and stubborn, and so clearly a product of her culture and time that it’s hard not to feel sympathy for her, even as we witness her poor decisions. We see, too, the variety and variance of religions within Iran and the dangers that each one can hold.

The book is never bogged down in political or historical details but the author uses characters and their various situation to broadly outline some of the issues behind the revolution and help the reader understand how a nation developed to this point.Īria’s life is straddled between poverty and wealth, her own desires often overcome by what’s allowed around her and what’s seen as acceptable.

Hozar does an excellent job of paralleling these two stories. And as Aria’s own life is altered forever, Iran enters the revolution. We stay close to Aria and her perspective but the book is also divided into sections named after her three mothers Zahra, Fereshteh, and Mehri, and we see how each forms her and changes her life.Īdjacent to Aria’s personal timeline is the story of Iran, a nation going through tumultuous changes. He names her Aria, after the word for song, even though this is usually a boy’s name in his country.įrom there the book follows Aria through childhood into teenage hood and young adulthood. A little girl who is almost immediately abandoned but then found by a man who chooses to raise her as his own. The book begins with the birth of a baby in Iran. I knew very little about the novel so it was quite lovely to find myself immersed in a story I might not have chosen on my own. I picked it up from the library as part of my Writers Fest Challenge, as Nazanine Hozar will be speaking at the Festival as one of the New Voices.

Aria by Nazanine Hozar