The Gardens of Consolation heralds the arrival of yet another prodigiously talented French-Iranian author, Parisa Reza, whose outstanding debut novel, like the works of Marjane Satrapi and Fariba Hachtroudi, voices a side of Iran rarely glimpsed in Western media. Reza's novel tells a sweeping generational saga in less than 300 pages--beginning in the 1920s, in an Iran starting to feel the effects of Reza Shah's modernization campaign, and ending in 1953, with the Western-backed coup that ousted Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh.
Reza relates history like a folk tale, an epic backdrop for the lives and loves of her richly developed characters. The changes occurring in Iran at the time are simultaneously epochal and virtually meaningless to Persians, who are part of an ancient culture. Protagonists Talla and Sardar fall in love, marry, have a son and live an uncomplicated life steeped in quiet dignity: "[Sardar] needed his horizon to be clear so he could see only the essence of life, as it was at the outset, before words existed; having people around, their chatter and bustle, interrupted the view."
Their son, Bahram, on the other hand, is enamored with words. He is as fascinated by political tracts as love poetry and participates in the intellectual ferment of the era. While Reza does not trivialize his efforts, The Gardens of Consolation takes a bittersweet view of Iranian history. As one character puts it: "What would be the point of freedom when enslavement is so tragic, tragedy is so poetic and poetry is so Persian!" --Hank Stephenson, bookseller, Flyleaf Books