The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is the first work of fiction translated from Farsi to be shortlisted for the International Booker Prize. The book tells a story of an Iranian family destroyed by the Islamic revolution of 1979. Mixing Persian folklore and harsh realities, the novel is narrated by a ghost of a 13-year-old girl whose family flees Tehran to preserve their lives and freedom. Highly critical of the Islamic state and its oppressive rule, the book has been banned in Iran. The author, Shokoofeh Azar, is an Iranian journalist who left her country in 2011 by boat to seek political asylum in Australia after having been arrested and kept for 3 months in isolation in her native country. The name of the translator of this novel is not disclosed at their request for reasons of safety.

From the pen of one of Iran’s rising literary stars, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a family story about the unbreakable connection between the living and the dead.

Set in Iran in the decade following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this moving, richly imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village, hoping in this way to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives. But they soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land and its people. Bahar’s mother, after a tragic loss, will embark on a long, eventful journey in search of meaning in a world swept up in the post-revolutionary madness.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with cruelty, and of our human need to make sense of trauma through the ritual of storytelling itself. Through her unforgettable characters, Azar weaves a timely and timeless story that juxtaposes the beauty of an ancient, vibrant culture with the brutality of an oppressive political regime.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE

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