Books set in Iran

[IsabellaofFrance]

After reading Blood of Flowers, which was fabulous, I would love to read some more booked based in Iran. Either modern day or preferably historical?

Does anyone know of any? :)

Sorry OP, marking my place :)

The most obvious one I can think of is Persepolis, it's a graphic novel though.

good reads

[[http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/feb/12/best-books-iran-start-reading-here]]

Sorry, link fail The best books on Iran: start your reading here

Such an interesting and diverse country, not many of us will visit, I guess. These are the books that we have found: www.tripfiction.com/find-a-book/?location=Iran&reset=1 Hope you find something you like...

Not a novel, although it reads like one, but Reading Lolita in Tehran gave me a decent sense of what it might have been like to be a woman in Iran after the revolution. It's about an illicit book group, and there's a lot of discussion of the books they were reading, but in the context of their lives.

Reading Lolita was good yeah

Only other one I can think of is Not Without My Daughter :-/
it's a film with Sally Field and Alfred Molina in too

For non fiction material I would recommend Azadeh Moaveni and her work. Persepolis is wonderful as are Marjane Satrapi's other works.

Right now I'm reading Whirlwind by James Clavell, set in Iran during the revolution in 1979. It's great (I love Clavell novels) but I'm only on page 150 of 1230!!

Isn't Not without my daughter about Saidi Arabia?

The blindfold horse is set in Iran...

I was going to recommend Persepolis, too. Great idea for a thread, will look out for some of these, such a fascinating country.

Only a little of it is set in Iran (then Persia), but have you read Road to Oxiania by Robert Byron? If not, I'd definitely recommend it.

I'm sure Abasi and the Palace is set in Iran, I've not read it but I know the author and I'm pretty sure that's where he said it was set when he was telling me about it.

Slightly off topic but might be of interest is the Iranian film maker and screenwriter Abbas Kiarostami. He has made some stunning documentary style films set in Iran. My personal favourite is 'The wind Will Carry Us'. The cinematography is a joy, coupled with a captivating story line.
A good number of his films are available on DVD from Amazon. I found they gave great insight when studying Iran.

You might like Shahnameh - The Epic of Kings/The Persian Book of Kings

pdf here -

www.sattor.com/english/Shahnameh.pdf

I read the sample of City Of Lies by Ramita Nevai and have been meaning to continue but haven't gotten around to it yet. It's not a novel though, its about a journalist who returns to Tehran after many years of living abroad and how he experiences daily life as an outsider in his own country. It was very good to start with and great reviews on amazon.

'Reading Lolita in Tehran' is about a reading group for Iranian women (reading books which the government did not want them to read) and I found it absolutely fascinating.

OP read My Uncle Napolean - it is a modern classic fiction (very famous) and one of the rare translated books from Farsi to English. It is also rare as it is was writing with Iranian readers in mind ( as opposed to the books of Azar Nafisi or Marjan Satrapi or travel books - all of whom were intended and written for non-Iranians and not written in Farsi originally). it is a favourite amongst Iranians. A TV series was also made from the book during Shah's time.