DISOIENTAL

WINNER2019 Albertine Prize2019 Lambda Literary AwardPrix du StylePrix de la Porte Dore 2016 Lire Best Debut Novel Le Prix du Roman NewsNow in B-format PaperbackKimi Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five with a new life and the prospect of a child Kimi is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors which reach her in unstoppable uncontainable waves. In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk with his harem of fifty-two wives and her parents Darius and Sara stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them.In this high-spirited kaleidoscopic story key moments of Iranian history politics and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph. Yet it is Kimi herselfpunk-rock aficionado storyteller extraordinaire a Scheherazade of our time and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own disorientalizationwho forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel.In her remarkable novel Negar Djavadi beautifully captures the disorientation of exile and the attempt to reconstruct a self through family stories. - The New York TimesThe novel pulsates with life but does not shirk from violence. The gorgeous prosetakes the edge off the relentless turmoil described throughout. - The Financial TimesA momentous saga of modern Iran. - Publishers Weekly