Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

This is a new book. Condition: Brand New.

A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family's flight from and return to Iran.

1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah's expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid.

1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power.

1999. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories.

2009. Laleh's brother Mo is more concerned with a friend's heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down ...

A topical, moving novel about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom.

'Bazyar shows us what it is to feel the loss of the Iranian homeland's soul and to hope for its recovery. The story invites our sympathy by clothing intergenerational politics in the familiar pains and daydreams of growing up. I cannot imagine anyone conceiving of this lifeworld more beautifully or inviting us into it with more charm and tenderness.'
-Theodore Ell, Australian Book Review

'Through cycles of exile and return, we follow an Iranian family across four decades - and learn what it means to always live in hope. The pages ... pulse with solidarities and betrayal, with heartache and humour.'
-The International Booker Prize 2026 judges

'Bazyar's stories strike at the aching heart of exile. A pulsing longing for a better future lingers from its first page to its last. A quietly beautiful exploration of the trauma of losing one's homeland to a savage regime, the novel is testament to how hope and the revolutionary spirit endure in the face of crushing tyranny, how courage cannot be fully stamped out. It lies dormant, awaiting a time when it can again ignite new acts of bravery, new waves of revolution.'
-Rhoda Kwan, The Saturday Paper

Book details and technical specifications

Format: Paperback / softback
ISBN13: 9781761381416
Published: April 2025

Number of pages: 288
Width: 136 mm
Height: 209 mm
Depth: 25 mm

Publisher: Scribe Publications