Rooftops of tehran by mahbod seraji

Among the traumatic events he relates are the sudden arrest, imprisonment and presumed execution of Doctor. Pasha, the novel’s narrator and prime dreamer, focuses on two key periods in his life: the summer and fall of 1973, when his life is going rather well, and the winter of 1974, when he’s incarcerated in a grim psychiatric hospital. In this neighborhood, the Shah is a subject of contempt rather than veneration, and residents fear SAVAK, the state’s secret police force, which operates without any restraint.

At first the girls scarcely know the boys are alive, and one of them, Zari, is engaged to Doctor-not actually a doctor but an exceptionally gifted and politically committed young Iranian. They’re bright, funny and good-looking they’re going to graduate from high school in a year and they’re in love with a couple of the neighborhood girls. A star-crossed romance captures the turmoil of pre-revolutionary Iran in Seraji’s debut.įrom the rooftops of Tehran in 1973, life looks pretty good to 17-year-old Pasha Shahed and his friend Ahmed.