Pari Khan Khanoom was a 16th-century Iranian princess, the favored daughter of the long-reigning Tasmahb Shah. Brilliant, powerful and ambitious, she was a shrewd political player in a time and place where being a woman meant seclusion and disempowerment. Yet Pari Khan Khanoom hasn't made many appearances in historical fiction, in spite of living a life ripe for it. In fact, unmarried and childless at the time of her brutal assassination at the age of 30, her name is unrecognizable to most anyone unfamiliar with Iranian history.
Anita Amirrezvani (The Blood of Flowers) tries to correct this injustice with Equal of the Sun, a novel that speculates on Pari's brief but extraordinary life. Pari ("a princess by birth... fierce but splendid in her bearing; a master archer, an almsgiver of great generosity; a poet of uncommon grace, the most trusted advisor to a shah, and a leader of men") was a major political force in the chaotic, bloody aftermath of her father's death, and the novel follows her as she navigates--and manipulates--the explosive tensions and calamitous betrayals of the court.
Equal of the Sun isn't just Pari's story, however. It's narrated by her closest servant and ally, a eunuch named Javaher whose (fictional) history rivals hers in drama and scope. As the two of them plot to restore peace and prosperity to the court, they develop an intense friendship--and that complex, powerful bond is just as fascinating as the politics that dictate it. --Hannah Calkins, blogger at Unpunished Vice