Name: The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree
ISBN: 9781925893939

Shokoofeh Azar

This richly-imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village. They hope to preserve their intellectual freedom and their lives, but soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land and its people. Written in the lyrical magical realism style of classical Persian story-telling, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with cruelty, and of our human need to make sense of trauma through the ritual of storytelling itself. Portentous dragonflies, forest jinns and mermaids suffuse the narrative that stand in stark contrast to the material circumstances that alter the character's lives. Through her unforgettable characters, Azar weaves a timely and timeless story that juxtaposes the beauty of an ancient, vibrant culture with the brutality of an oppressive political regime.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

An extraordinarily powerful and evocative literary novel set in Iran in the period immediately after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Using the lyrical magic realism style of classical Persian storytelling, Azar draws the reader deep into the heart of a family caught in the maelstrom of post-revolutionary chaos and brutality that sweeps across an ancient land and its people. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is really an embodiment of Iranian life in constant oscillation, struggle, and play between four opposing poles: life and death; politics and religion. The sorrow residing in the depths of our joy is the product of a life between these four poles. "This novel is an exciting development in Australian publishing." ~ ANZ LitLovers LitBlog. Read the rest of this fantastic review here. "Living in the 21st Century is not for the faint hearted, so it's no surprise that writers of literary fiction are looking clear-eyed at schisms of times past and the capacity of humans for brutality. Stylistically similar to Eka Kurniawan's acclaimed Beauty is a Wound, this novel is set in the aftermath of Iran's Islamic Revolution of 1979. Many scenes, most memorably Azar's handling of Beeta's fate, blend heavy darkness with allegorical flights of imagination, marking the author as an assured fabulist. She brings to colourful life an extended family replete with beauty, humour, and tragedy." ~ WritingWA

Hellboy TCR

3.5 stars for this decently written occasionally meandering work.

Daryl Houston

I struggled a bit with this one, taking nearly a week to go through its scant 250ish pages. Magical realism works for me sometimes and doesn't work for me other times, and I guess it didn't work for me entirely in this book. Parts of it were neat, but so much of it felt sort of randomly strung together to me that I had trouble staying interested. I was most interested in the Iranian history. The last fifth or so of the book landed better for me than much of the middle. So, it had some parts I enjoyed and some parts I read sort of glassy-eyed and mostly wanted to grit my teeth and get through. It was neither especially good to me nor especially bad; a two-star rating would feel stingy, though a three may be generous.

Jeremy Boyd

Mirto

Olivia

Omar Eraky

Marcus Rosen

Martin Ackerfors

Allison King

From the pen of one of Iran's rising literary stars, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a family story about the unbreakable connection between the living and the dead. Set in Iran in the decade following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this moving, richly imagined novel is narrated by the ghost of Bahar, a thirteen-year-old girl, whose family is compelled to flee their home in Tehran for a new life in a small village, hoping in this way to preserve both their intellectual freedom and their lives. But they soon find themselves caught up in the post-revolutionary chaos that sweeps across their ancient land and its people. Bahar's mother, after a tragic loss, will embark on a long, eventful journey in search of meaning in a world swept up in the post-revolutionary madness. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree speaks of the power of imagination when confronted with cruelty, and of our human need to make sense of trauma through the ritual of storytelling itself. Through her unforgettable characters, Azar weaves a timely and timeless story that juxtaposes the beauty of an ancient, vibrant culture with the brutality of an oppressive political regime.

The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree

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