ARIA by Nazanine Hozur

Iran is another country in the second half of the twentieth century that has gone through massive upheaval - , the rise of religious nationalism with its Islamic fervour, overthrow of the Shah, the religious reforms of Ayatollah Al Khameni, the war with Iraq. Surely enough for one fifty year period.

This novel is set against the historical and political background of the time, in Teheran and centres on the story of an abandoned baby. It is 1953 and the baby, a girl, is found by a driver for the army who adopts her, he and his wife Zahra not having children of their own. He names her Aria which is actually a boy's name, but perfectly suited to this unusual looking child with a fiery independent personality. Naturally she gets into all sorts of trouble with her mother, a difficult extremely embittered and violent woman, very free with her temper on Aria. Her story comes out as the novel continues. Aria's life is only bearable due to her father and a young boy who lives next door, with whom she has various escapades, showing her a world denied to her in her home. Her mother is only one of three women who shape the woman that Aria becomes. She is informally adopted by a wealthy woman, Fereshteh, who offers her refuge from her mother. Aria gets an education, makes friends, goes to university, and as a result develops unique skills allowing her to move across and through the social divide of wealth and poverty of Teheran at this time.  At the same time her father manages to track down her birth mother, Mehri, and I am not giving anything in the plot away by saying this, as there is really no other explanation for this woman and her family to come into Aria's life. Mehri is still poor, still living a hand to mouth existence, and it is arranged for Aria, by this time a teenager and reluctantly it has to be said, to teach the other children to read. With no explanation given to her she finds herself traipsing across town far too regularly to spend enforced time with this family. Over time, as she grows up, the nature of her relationship with the family changes. I did find this thread of the plot a bit implausible, I couldn't really see this happening in real life.  

Life takes dangerous turns with increasing anger and resistance to the reigning monarchy, the Shah and his family oblivious to the hardship and poverty of much of the population. Aria is a university student by this time, open and frantic for new ideas, student protest movements, young passionate love. As well as anti monarchy groups working to overthrow the Shah, there is the rise of religious nationalism that leads to the revolution of 1979. Aria and her friends are caught up in all of this, and in a life that has already had many changes and upheavals, Aria is well equipped to come out the other side. 

I have never read a novel set in Teheran before, and this city is definitely the highlight of the book. What a city! Physically it is old, such a classically designed city, beautiful old buildings with a strong European flavour. Throw into this all the ethnic, religious and cultural groups that make up the intricate conglomeration of Iran, and you have a vibrant, diverse, challenging city. It seems every ancient religion is represented in Teheran, somehow they all make their way into this novel, along with the food, dress, customs and rituals. There are some great scenes going through the markets - sounds amazing. I wasn't so shook on the story, on the style of telling the story - there are a lot of characters who pop up in strange ways at unexpected places, so for me it didn't flow very well. But the way the author writes of the city and of the people really makes me want to go there. I wonder, as I type this, when that will be.