Feb,
2006 (Raleigh, NC) - This March Hats Off Books is
releasing author Maryam Tabibzadeh's fascinating family saga of life in
Persia/Iran. Spanning the 20th century, Persian Dreams follows the
individual lives of family members across generations, exploring the intimate
details of life in Iran during this period. Through the loves and losses of the
characters and the telling and retelling of the family's stories, the reader is
allowed to experience Persian culture from the inside.
From the
architecture of the houses to the rules governing relationships between men and
women, the texture of this rich culture permeates the book and interweaves the
realities of the time and place with the fictional lives of this family.
Highlighting the importance of poetry in Persian culture, there are poems/songs
throughout the novel which speak of the love, the tragedy, the joy that these
characters experience over the years.
Speaking from a place of great
familiarity with the culture, Tabibzadeh takes the reader through time to
experience the changes in the culture from one generation to the next. Through
her characters, she offers great insights into the lives of women in this
society and how the changes in the political climate have affected womens lives
and roles over the years.
Describing the sources of inspiration and
material for her novel, Tabibzadeh credits "a tangle of facts and fiction which
came from my research for my thesis in 1976; my observation of more than 30
years living in that culture; and the stories I heard from friends."
The
resulting novel offers readers a glimpse at an Iran that is much deeper than the
headlines and much broader than the preconceptions that dominate Western media.
The complexity of the Iranian Revolution is brought to life through characters
who must make tough decisions in difficult times, and who suffer the costs of
imperfect solutions. Though the novel takes place exclusively in the 20th
century, this only delineates how recently (and rapidly) this culture has gone
through significant changes. Yet, there are also indications of how the past
continues to inform the present and how stubbornly unchanging some cultural
practices are, especially in the case of women who must struggle to find their
place in Islam and still be free to follow their own destinies.
Maryam Tabibzadeh was born in Darab, Pars Iran . She received her
Masters of Computer Science from SUNY Binghamton in 1983 and is a computer
programmer. She has written nonfiction books about the lives of two villages in
Iran, 1974-1976. She has also written several short stories and poems that have
been published in the Persian Newsletter in Raleigh, NC.
Persian
Dreams
Persian Dreams
By Maryam Tabibzadeh
Paperback, 6x9
in, 404 pages
Iceni Books, March 2006
ISBN: 1587364867
Hats Off Books
phone: (520) 798-3306
