My Bird

<p>In this powerful story of life love and the demands of marriage and<br />motherhood Fariba Vafi gives readers a portrait of one woman's struggle<br />to adapt to the complexity of life in modern Iran. The narrator a housewife<br />and young mother living in a low-income neighborhood in Tehran dwells<br />upon her husband Amir's desire to immigrate to Canada. His peripatetic<br />lifestyle underscores her own sense of inertia. When he finally slips away<br />the young woman is forced to raise the children alone and care for her<br />ailing mother.<br />Vafi's brilliant minimalist style showcases the narrator's reticence and<br />passivity. Brief chapters and spare prose provide the ideal architecture<br />for the character's densely packed unexpressed emotions to unfold on<br />the page. Haunted by the childhood memory of her father's death in the<br />basement of her house while her mother ignored his entreaties for help the<br />narrator believes she relinquished her responsibility and failed to challenge<br />her mother. As a single parent and head of household she must confront<br />her paralyzing guilt and establish her independence.<br />Vafi's characters are emblematic of many women in Iran caught<br />between tradition and modernity. Demystifying contemporary Iran by taking<br />readers beyond the stereotypes and into the lives of individuals Vafi is<br />one of the most important voices in Iranian literature. My Bird heralds her<br />eagerly anticipated introduction to an English-speaking audience.</p>