The Septembers of Shiraz: A Novel

The Septembers of Shiraz exists somewhere on the continuum of fiction and memoir. It is a story, told in sharp focus realism, of a family in Iran at the time of the Revolution, swept up in the reign of terror: a father tortured in a secret political prison, a mother desperate for answers, a son studying abroad depressed and cut adrift, a ten year old daughter ostracized and suspected by her friends, a long time household servant with divided loyalties. Author Dalia Sofer was herself ten years old when she escaped from Iran with her family.The Septembers of Shiraz was the 2018 annual selection of the One Bay One Book program of the Jewish Community Library. (San Franciscans, look it up!) I had the privilege of meeting the author and hearing her interviewed as part of the program. Sofer said that it was wrong to read The Septembers of Shiraz as a story of Jewish persecution in revolutionary Iran. She filled her fictional political prison with all kinds of enemies of the regime: Marxists, intellectuals, non-political family members of enemies, and former revolutionaries who somehow crossed a line. Sofer took pains to say that while the Islamic Republic continues today, the reign of terror is over. And yet, when asked if she wanted to visit her homeland, she made it clear that it would not be safe for her to do so because of her book.

It’s always difficult to tell how much of a novel inspired by the author’s personal experience is purely creative and how much is really nonfiction. Dalia Sofer’s debut is clearly autobiographical since she and her family fled the totalitarian nightmare of Iran when she was a little girl. Yet unlike most memoir this novel is very creatively written, as in: “And when the questions would not stop, Farnaz (the mother) told her (her little girl) to keep quiet and go to bed. The questions stopped, leaving in their place a muddy silence.” Or this: “To enter their apartment would be like relegating himself to a ghetto, where the memories of all the wrongs committed against Jews simmer year after year in bulky, indigestible stews.” More still: “Throughout the trip he carried in his pocket a metal flask of whiskey, from which apathy, fermented and distilled, tipped into his mouth and filtered through his veins, transforming him into the impassive man that he was.” Maybe it doesn’t really matter what makes the novel superlative, the author’s fascinating real life story or her creative writing craft. Possibly it’s both.Outstanding literary fiction with a political backbone is hellishly difficult to find in a modern market accustomed to more formulaic fare. Until Ms. Sofer the niche was comprised entirely of Khaled Hosseini’s three books. Books like these come to market through the vision of acquisition editors at major publishing houses. In Hosseini’s case that would be Sarah McGrath at Riverside, and in Ms. Sofer’s case it is Lee Boudreaux at Ecco. Ms. Sofer and Lee Boudreaux should be praised in the same breath.

This book is beautifully written and an interesting story, but every time I put it down I had a hard time picking it up again. I bought this book because I wanted to learn more about the Iranian revolution, but the torture and terror these people endured was really hard for me to read. If you are looking for a really well written book and don't mind the things I have previously mentioned, then this is the book for you.

This book is a well written historical novel which depicts the time period in Iran after the fall of the Shah and specifically how one family was affected.I liked how the author was able to convey both the beauty and horror of life before and after the Shah and also juxtapose it against a Hasidic family in Brooklyn NY. She was convincing in her portrayal of the religious fanatics and the terror of the prison and the effect of had on a society and still does.I would recommend the book

This story unfolds through the reflections of the main characters as their lives spin out of control in the context of Revolutionary Iran. Dalia Sofer's writing draws the reader in as she compels him/her to not only enter but also consider these thoughts as they could apply to one's own seemingly ordered life - here one day and perhaps gone the next... Impermanence and loss co-exist with courage and hope. I highly recommend this novel to anyone wanting to journey with the Amin family in Sofer's beautifully crafted narrative.

Novel is a semi autobiographical story of an Iranian Jewish family caught in the web of the Iranian revolution that deposed the Shah and installed the Ayatollah.Isaac, a wealthy Jewish gem dealer is arrested and thrown into jail charged with being a Zionist spy. The story of what happens to him in jail is horrifying. His family is thrown into chaos not knowing what will happen to Isaac or to them.Very well written and fast paced, this book gives us a window into what happens when the disaffected rise up and take power and the effects that that upheaval has on both the rich and the poor in Iran.

This is the story of a man, a family, and a society torn apart; uprooted and devastated by the fostered vengeance of the islamic revolution in Iran. I did not find any heroes in the book, just people who are reduced. The wealthy middle class acolytes of the Shah pulled down from their pedestal and reduced to timid shadows of their former selves. Their employees reduced, at best to cowardice and complicity, at worst to barbarism under the guise of righteousness. No false notes in the gripping story which details this disintegration. At times I had to set the book down and take a break so great is the tension; the sense of menace in the spiral downwards to a seemingly inevitable conclusion. Highly recommended.

Didn’t immediately love it but it was a slow starter that crept up on me and ended up thoroughly enjoying it

most of my friends have read this book and say its really good and a easy read, for that reason I am trying to get into it in some places it grips me other not and i still reading it. For me i have put the book down and not really rush back to read it like others books i have read.

A truly amazing book that changes your perspective and makes you appreciate the smallest things we take for granted.

well worth the read