Zahra's brutality is nuanced, with her backstory revealing the origins of her anger and providing more context for her actions long after the conclusion of her focal section. This early domestic maltreatment provides the book's first instances of violence, a theme that recurs not only between characters but through state violence from SAVAK (the Shah's secret police) and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism throughout the 1960s and '70s. Blood dripped from a cut on Aria's cheek left by Zahra's wedding ring. Zahra smacked Aria's face with the back of her hand, knowing that inflicted the most hurt. When Zahra pulled her hair, Aria awoke, too shocked to cry. She repeatedly locks Aria out of the house, forcing her to spend nights on a balcony, and neglects her to the point where she develops trachoma, which threatens to destroy her eyesight.

Zahra's actions toward Aria are reprehensible. The beginning of the novel centers Zahra, Behrouz's velvet-high-heel-and-red-lipstick-sporting wife. Aria is divided into four parts, each with a focus on one of four main female characters: Zahra, Fereshteh, Mehri and Aria. While Behrouz, perhaps the novel's most sympathetic character, and other men in the book are not without their complexity and purpose, the plot is firmly driven by the life events of its women. Hozar skillfully weaves this coming-of-age tale against the brewing discontent in Tehran as the nation surges toward the 1979 revolution and the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran.Īria explores an array of experiences from a female perspective, including childbirth, love, marriage, loss, mothering, inheritance and abuse. This opening draws the reader into Nazanine Hozar's debut novel, which chronicles the life of its titular character until 1981. The infant is soon discovered by Behrouz, an army driver who becomes a surrogate father to her and names her Aria. An engrossing coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of the ideological and political rupture of the Iranian Revolution.Īria opens with the abandonment of a baby girl in a Tehran alley in the winter of 1953.

Nazanine hozar aria