Silenced Whispers
"Rampant hunger, poverty, and disease in Tehran angered her. They needed railroads, factories, schools, and hospitals. They needed doctors and teachers. They needed money and modernity. Her happiness was inconsequential. She pictured the wind-catchers, the simple structures that silently turned scorching desert winds into cool air. Without them, desert towns ceased to exist. That was what she needed to be."
Synopsis
While other Iranian girls of the early twentieth century cook, sew, and dream of a family, Gohar climbs trees, reads books, and fantasizes about traveling. But when her forbidden correspondence with a local boy is discovered, the prospect of banishment alarms the fatherless Gohar. She welcomes the protection of Saleh Mirza, a powerful nobleman who adopts her, and accepts his choice of husband for her: a 55-year-old politician, Haji. Aged just 14, she vows to enter her marital home in a white chador and exit in a white shroud.
But fate has much more in store for her. In Tehran, as dazzled by the electric lights and gramophones as she is appalled by the social and economic hardship caused by the corrupt, foreign-supported government, she sees the calamity that domestic corruption and foreign meddling have brought on her backward country. She risks her life—and her marriage—to join activists seeking modernization and sovereignty, inciting the wrath of colonial powers: Russia and England. While navigating a rapidly changing Tehran under the cover of her veil, she encounters the Russian idealist Aslan, a defender of the Iranian reformists. Barred from contact with non-relative males, she sees him from afar as a mythical hero, a legend.
As Gohar struggles between tradition and modernity, between her vows and her attraction to a man she’s never spoken to, Russia invades northern Iran, and everything changes.
The Silent Whispers is the story of an Iranian woman’s battle for freedom—her own and her country’s—set against a backdrop of profound social change and imperial power grabs. Vividly portraying life in Iran at the dawn of the twentieth century, the book is inspired by the pioneering women who fought for Iranian democracy. The author’s upbringing in Iran and her Russian great grandfather—who was poisoned by the Bolsheviks—have left their mark on its pages.
In homage to a land where poetry is akin to breathing, each of the novel’s parts is prefaced by a poem from a contemporary Iranian.
Synopsis
While other Iranian girls of the early twentieth century cook, sew, and dream of a family, Gohar climbs trees, reads books, and fantasizes about traveling. But when her forbidden correspondence with a local boy is discovered, the prospect of banishment alarms the fatherless Gohar. She welcomes the protection of Saleh Mirza, a powerful nobleman who adopts her, and accepts his choice of husband for her: a 55-year-old politician, Haji. Aged just 14, she vows to enter her marital home in a white chador and exit in a white shroud.
But fate has much more in store for her. In Tehran, as dazzled by the electric lights and gramophones as she is appalled by the social and economic hardship caused by the corrupt, foreign-supported government, she sees the calamity that domestic corruption and foreign meddling have brought on her backward country. She risks her life—and her marriage—to join activists seeking modernization and sovereignty, inciting the wrath of colonial powers: Russia and England. While navigating a rapidly changing Tehran under the cover of her veil, she encounters the Russian idealist Aslan, a defender of the Iranian reformists. Barred from contact with non-relative males, she sees him from afar as a mythical hero, a legend.
As Gohar struggles between tradition and modernity, between her vows and her attraction to a man she’s never spoken to, Russia invades northern Iran, and everything changes.
The Silent Whispers is the story of an Iranian woman’s battle for freedom—her own and her country’s—set against a backdrop of profound social change and imperial power grabs. Vividly portraying life in Iran at the dawn of the twentieth century, the book is inspired by the pioneering women who fought for Iranian democracy. The author’s upbringing in Iran and her Russian great grandfather—who was poisoned by the Bolsheviks—have left their mark on its pages.
In homage to a land where poetry is akin to breathing, each of the novel’s parts is prefaced by a poem from a contemporary Iranian.
I am excited to announce my upcoming novel, "Silenced Whispers" will be out in Spring 2024! If you'd like to be notified of updates, please send me an email at [email protected]
-Afarin
-Afarin