From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

I really enjoyed this novel about life in Iran and more particularly about a family that used to run the most important mosque in a traditional city. The action is set in time from the last years of the Shah and the turmoil of the Iranian revolution. Perhaps this rich background made this novel so good, but my impression is that the way characters are built and the conflicts they live are making the real substance. And when you follow a big family throughout a couple of decades and in the end on

I really enjoyed this novel about life in Iran and more particularly about a family that used to run the most important mosque in a traditional city. The action is set in time from the last years of the Shah and the turmoil of the Iranian revolution. Perhaps this rich background made this novel so good, but my impression is that the way characters are built and the conflicts they live are making the real substance. And when you follow a big family throughout a couple of decades and in the end only few are alive you cannot be nothing else than impressed.

I learnt many things about Islam and Persian culture. I have understood a thing that I already knew from other revolutions: the revolutions are almost always painful and dictatorial leaders always kill their opponents.