Because she is such a mass of contradictions, her lurching from mean or stupid action to another is sort of believable, but it gets tiresome. Emotionally she is all over the place, and it’s impossible to get a handle on her. Perhaps because of Zahra’s ill treatment, poverty, or just her own personality, Aria lashes out verbally and physically at the world. She is a creature of extremes, sometimes kind, but mostly quite nasty and volatile, often working against her own self-interest. That Behrouz turns to opium is completely understandable as his life has so little joy.īut Aria’s motivation is not evident. They are poor, but it’s unclear why Zahra is so mean to the child. Behrouz’s job takes him away from home for days on end, so he cannot protect Aria. Zahra is older than Behrouz and already has a grown son out of wedlock, and he marries her because his father pressures him to hide his homosexuality. The one character who seems the most human is Behrouz, the driver for the army who rescues Aria and names her. While there’s no doubt such actions occurred, the novel feels overloaded and thus melodramatic, especially since the characters are largely ciphers for the ideas Hozar is exploring. And the conflict is inevitably matched by violence. UK editionĬonflict is the essence of this novel: conflict between rich and poor, male and female, Christian and Muslim, radical and moderate Muslim, Shah and Khomeini, and many others.

And it appears that Hozar tried to cram in as many examples of the suffering the Iranians endured, no matter what their belief system or economic status. The novel is historical, not autobiographical.

Hozar was born in Tehran and moved to Vancouver as a child. It also helps if readers have some knowledge of Iranian history during this time. But as a narrative strategy, it can be confusing. The third person point of view shifts from character to character and through time and place in a somewhat incoherent manner, perhaps mirroring the turmoil facing individuals and the country.

Hozar’s cast of characters is vast although each one has an effect on Aria, and to some degree is affected by her. While the baby is saved from death in the freezing Tehran night, her childhood is full of abuse from her new mother Zahra. Abandoned as a newborn under a mulberry tree by her mother Mehri, who fears the baby’s father will kill her, Aria is found by a man who takes her home to his wife. Nazanine Hozar’s debut novel tackles the chaos of Iran from 1953 to 1981 by focussing on the life of its title character, Aria. On March 12, 2020, Hozar’s Aria was one of five books shortlisted for the 2020 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize of the BC and Yukon Book Prizes - Ed. Toronto: Penguin Random House (Knopf Canada)

Aria nazanine hozar