Reviews

Thirty Shadow Birds by Fereshteh Molavi

miramichireader's review

4.0

I was undecided as to rate this a four or five stars, but I went with four because this novel, as wonderfully written as it is, is a little inaccessible due to the way Ms. Molavi has chosen to tell the story of poor Yalda, a fifty-ish woman living in Toronto with her son who is all but estranged from her. The story goes back and forth between the present and the past, between Tehran and Toronto (and places in between) and it's sometimes hard to tell where in time Yalda is speaking from. She talks a lot to herself, hinting at her slow descent into a frenzied emotional and mental state that has her wandering (and driving) aimlessly, trying to find nirvana on her own. A sad, yet impactful story of innumerable losses in an unfulfilled life.