Djavadi treats the immigrant condition with intelligence and compassion, exploring how, in order to integrate into a culture, “you have to disintegrate first”. Kimiâ’s father is broken in exile, avoiding the metro escalator because it’s “for them” (the French).
The family escapes to Paris, but there is no happy ending. President Ahmadinejad is quoted: “We don’t have this phenomenon.”īut for now sexuality is the least of Kimiâ’s problems, as first the Shah’s police and then the mullahs target her parents. In her remarkable novel, Disoriental, Negar Djavadi an Iranian writer who fled her native country after the 1979 revolution and settled in Paris beautifully captures the disorientation. Kimia Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Disoriental Audible Audiobook Unabridged Ngar Djavadi (Author), Tina Kover - translator (Author), Siiri Scott (Narrator), 279 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle 11.30 Read with Our Free App Audiobook 0.00 Free with your Audible trial Paperback 11.89 43 Used from 1.49 18 New from 5.36 Audio CD 23.49 2 New from 23. Nor – though it tolerates transgender people – does official Iran accept the existence of homosexuality. Kimiâ (“alchemy”) grows up a tomboy in a country that doesn’t recognise the concept.
Before Khomeini and compulsory veiling, there was Shah Reza Pahlavi, the “pauper-turned-king” who “used a special militia to tear the veils from women’s heads”. Imperialist assaults, coups, revolts and waves of repression take place against the unchanging backdrop of a “phallocratic society”. Kimiâ’s immediate relatives – her parents Darius and Sara (both political activists), her big sisters, and uncles numbered one to six – are the most closely observed.ĭjavadi’s beguiling tale-telling, cynical and lyrical by turns, extends to an account of Iranian history. Disoriental, Négar Djavadi’s sophisticated debut novel, is brilliantly translated by Tina Kover and teems with fully realised characters.
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