Sahar Delijani

“Set in post-revolutionary Iran, Delijani’s gripping novel is a blistering indictment of tyranny, a poignant tribute to those who bear the scars of it, and a celebration of the human’s heart’s eternal yearning for freedom.”

(Khaled Hosseini)

Neda is born in Evin Prison, where her mother is allowed to nurse her for months before the arms of a guard appear at the cell door one day and, simply, take her away. Omid, at age three, witnesses the arrests of his political activist parents from his perch at their kitchen table, yogurt dripping from his fingertips. More than twenty years after the violent, bloody purge that took place inside Tehran’s prisons, Sheida learns that her father was one of those executed, that the silent void firmly planted between her and her mother all these years was not just the sad loss that comes with death but the anguish, the horror, of murder.

Sahar Delijani was born in Tehran, Iran in 1983 and migrated to California in 1996, where she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in Comparative Literature. In 2006, she moved to Turin, Italy where she lived for over ten years and wrote her debut novel, Children of the Jacaranda Tree. The novel has been translated into 30 languages and published in more than 75 countries. Children of the Jacaranda Tree was a finalist for Italy’s Elle Gran Premio 2014, a Women’s National Book Association’s Great Group 2014 selection, a 2013 Indie Next List, a CBS Local Best Book Club Picks for Fall 2014 and a candidate for Prix des Lecteurs Sélection 2015 by Le Livre de Poche. Twice a Pushcart nominee, Delijani’s writings have appeared in BBC Persian, The Bellevue Review, Corriere della Sera, La Nazione, Read it Forward, Slice Magazine, Perigee Publications and more. She currently lives in the California.

Languages: English/German