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neemzilla's review against another edition
3.0
A powerful little book that offered a generous and vulnerable glimpse into the horrors experienced by some Iranian refugees. The book’s emotionally rich beginnings devolved into a series of overly intellectual letters and I felt the heart of the story fade with the changing structure.
clairewords's review against another edition
4.0
A woman is working in an asylum centre as a translator and is called in to translate an interview due to the unavailability another person. She utters the word, she has all but banished from her vocabulary. Yes. Now she faces the man with the voice she recognises, the man who snapped his fingers and changed her life, in their country, years ago.
Fariba Hachtroudi's novella is a dual narrative, switching between two characters as they experience the present and remember the past in flashbacks, a kind of first person stream-of-conscious dual narrative that is tense and withholding, though ultimately revealing.
We know bad things have happened, but no one wishes to relive or explain them, their thoughts rarely go there. They both live with fear, paranoia and suffer from separation, from the memory and pain of love. However they seek answers, atonement and their brief meeting will move them closer to it.
They both live in isolation and with the memory of a great love and yet they have this terrible connection, which requires them to move past if they are to be of any benefit to each other. Can one overcome the memory of torture, the victim and the perpetrator?
It's a book that would benefit from being read twice as the narrative isn't chronological, the characters and their loved ones are revealed slowly so thoughts shared in the beginning without reader knowledge add more to the story if we flip back and reread them.
Though a short novella, it requires concentration and acceptance that the threads will become clear, and yet even while things are unclear, there is a mounting tension and discomfort that is hard to articulate, but is testament to the profound, tightly woven writing style of the author, this her first English translation.
Fariba Hachtroudi was born in Tehran, leaving Iran after the 1979 revolution. An account of her return to Iran after 30 years in exile was the subject of a memoir [b:Twelfth Imam's a Woman?|10903439|Twelfth Imam's a Woman?|Fariba Hachtroudi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328691047s/10903439.jpg|15819535]
One last interview with an asylum seeker who's a bit of a problem, said my interlocutor, who was not anyone I knew. He went on It's a Colonel from the Theological Republic. But - I read your file. "Refuses to do any simultaneous translation for military or government personnel from her country of origin."
Fariba Hachtroudi's novella is a dual narrative, switching between two characters as they experience the present and remember the past in flashbacks, a kind of first person stream-of-conscious dual narrative that is tense and withholding, though ultimately revealing.
We know bad things have happened, but no one wishes to relive or explain them, their thoughts rarely go there. They both live with fear, paranoia and suffer from separation, from the memory and pain of love. However they seek answers, atonement and their brief meeting will move them closer to it.
They both live in isolation and with the memory of a great love and yet they have this terrible connection, which requires them to move past if they are to be of any benefit to each other. Can one overcome the memory of torture, the victim and the perpetrator?
It's a book that would benefit from being read twice as the narrative isn't chronological, the characters and their loved ones are revealed slowly so thoughts shared in the beginning without reader knowledge add more to the story if we flip back and reread them.
Though a short novella, it requires concentration and acceptance that the threads will become clear, and yet even while things are unclear, there is a mounting tension and discomfort that is hard to articulate, but is testament to the profound, tightly woven writing style of the author, this her first English translation.
Fariba Hachtroudi was born in Tehran, leaving Iran after the 1979 revolution. An account of her return to Iran after 30 years in exile was the subject of a memoir [b:Twelfth Imam's a Woman?|10903439|Twelfth Imam's a Woman?|Fariba Hachtroudi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328691047s/10903439.jpg|15819535]
beabooks's review against another edition
3.0
Fills into the Reading Women Challenge 2021 (3) A Book About Incarceration.
maxwelldunn's review against another edition
4.0
This is a powerful story about a woman who was held prisoner in a fictional nation (inspired by totalitarian governments) and a colonel who worked at the prison in which she was kept. It deals with issues of resistance, unmitigated violence, betrayal, and ultimately, love. I think a re-read of this book would be really rewarding because even though it's quite a short novel, there is a lot going on. Hachtroudi handles the topic excellently, giving you enough to understand the characters at first, and then doling out information through their alternating perspectives to really bring you into their emotions. I thought it was a compelling story that shows the horrors of war en masse in light of the strength and resilience of individuals. 4 stars
rousmo01's review
5.0
An incredibly powerful little book with a lot of depth that took me a very long time to complete, not because of length (it's quite short) or the language used, but the sheer density and weight of the story. I'll have to read this again at some point in the future, but it's definitely a beautiful, powerful story that requires some serious deep thinking afterwards.
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