This novel is the story of ten people living in Tehran during the tenuous years before the Iranian Revolution of 1979. What they share between them is the desperate, everyday need for understanding and freedom, but also their connection to the central figure and title character, Aria, an orphaned girl found on a street corner by Shapour, a driver in the Iranian army who brings her home and raises her under the gaze of his abusive wife, Zahra. In time, and through serendipity, Aria charms her way through the echelons of Tehran society, rising from lowest of classes into the aristocratic Ferdowsi family. From there, not only does Aria bring all the characters together, in ways they could never have imagined, but her life, during this crucial time in Iranian history, serves to carve out the trajectory of the their own lives, with some ending in tragedy and others enveloped in hope.
Aria | 
