I’m excited to read the winning book from Iran/Persia. But before I announce the results of the vote, I thought I’d introduce you to a beautiful poem from Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, more popularly known simply as Rumi.
Rumi was a famed Persian mystic, poet, & dervish who born 814 years ago. (As noted by Oxford Languages, a dervish is a member of a Muslim—specifically Sufi—religious order who has taken vows of poverty & austerity. Dervishes first appeared in the 12th century; they were noted for their wild or ecstatic rituals & were known as dancing, whirling, or howling dervishes according to the practice of their order.)
Below is Rumi’s poem, “When I Die” with the English translation appearing on the screen as the poem is recited in the original Persian/Farsi along with haunting music in the background. (For those visually impaired, click here for the English text.)
But what book are we reading?
Shortlisted for the 2020 International Booker Prizer
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.
“If ever there was a book that needs to be read more than once, this is it.” —ArtsHub
“[Azar’s] book is a great journey. It moves places and it moves us as readers, in an emotional and intellectual sense.” —The Los Angeles Review of Books
(Group read suggestion from Gemma Ware, book club moderator.)
View on Amazon | Bookshop.org | SecondSale used book
