MAY 2014 - AudioFile
Negin Farsad’s accented narration adds credence to the character of Sahar, a 17-year-old Iranian. Sahar’s childhood love for Nasrim has blossomed into a hidden lesbian affair that could get the girls executed. Farsad poignantly portrays Sahar’s conflicting feelings—passion for Nasrim, fear of its consequences, and despair about Nasrim’s pending marriage. In contrast, Farsad’s characterization of the rich, spoiled Nasrim reveals her selfish, superficial personality. These two portraits make for growing tension as Sahar struggles with a difficult potential solution. Is loving Nasrim worth going through a legal operation that will change her gender and make her entire life a lie? Farsad gives a convincing picture of Sahar’s complexities, her growing compassion for Iran’s outsiders, and her emotional transformation. S.W. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly - Audio
10/28/2013
In Farizan’s novel set in contemporary Iran, 17-year-old Sahar struggles with her love for her best friend, a girl named Nasrin, whom she has wanted to marry for over a decade. Nasrin loves Sahar, but decides to accept an arranged marriage—which eventually prompts Sahar to consider sex reassignment surgery, the only legal way the two could be together. Farsad’s narration is heartwarming, and she creates unique voices for various characters—including the flighty and somewhat shallow Nasrin; the more serious, passionate Sahar; Sahar’s edgy cousin Ali; and Ali’s gentle friend Parveen. Altogether, a winning, timely, and important audio production. Ages 14-up. An Algonquin hardcover. (Aug.)
Publishers Weekly
This provocative coming-of-age story takes place in contemporary Iran, where the sight of a woman’s elbows can provoke police action; homosexuality, “a bargain made with the devil,” carries threats of beating and hanging; but being transsexual is recognized by the government as a treatable illness. Seventeen-year-old Sahar, who has wanted to marry her best friend Nasrin since they were six years old, dreams of living openly with her lover. Nasrin prefers to accept an arranged marriage, while intending to continue their illicit affair. Exposed to a world of sexual diversity by her gay cousin and made desperate by Nasrin’s impending marriage, Sahar explores the one legal option for the two of them to be together: her own sex reassignment surgery. Throughout this strong debut, Farizan weaves in details of daily Iranian life, exposing the various opportunities available to people depending upon their academic prowess, financial status, social class, and sexuality. Within a rigid societal structure, her fleshed-out characters wrestle with depression, hope, complacency, and risk, and live out the consequences of their choices. Ages 14–up. Agent: Leigh Feldman, Writers House. (Aug.)
Reviews
Farizan’s prose is frank, funny and bittersweet, enjoyable . . . And her secondary storylines ring out memorably.” —The New York Times Book Review “This beautifully crafted young-adult novel offers timely insight into the struggles of those who must be their authentic selves no matter where they live.” —Ms. Magazine “Sharp and moving . . . An interesting look at gender identity and gay culture in Iran . . . Also a compelling story about class and the purpose of marriage.” —The Boston Globe
"[A] terrific debut novel . . . Rich with details of life in contemporary Iran, this is a GLBTQ story that we haven't seen before in YA fiction. Highly recommended." —School Library Journal"Accomplished and compassionate . . . A groundbreaking, powerful depiction of gay and transsexual life in Iran . . . An intimate look at life in modern-day Iran and its surprising Westernization, even though much of this culture is clandestine." —Booklist, starred review
“[A] provocative coming-of-age story . . . Throughout this strong debut, Farizan weaves in details of daily Iranian life . . . Within a rigid societal structure, her fleshed-out characters wrestle with depression, hope, complacency, and risk.” —Publishers Weekly
“A convincing portrait of everyday life in post-revolutionary Iranian society . . . While Farizan deals with LGBT issues in this book, she also is writing about the choices all young adults must face. Sahar must find her place in her family, decide which career to follow, and figure out how to let go of a first love—universal themes in all cultures.” —Durham Herald-Sun
From the Publisher
Farizan’s prose is frank, funny and bittersweet, enjoyable . . . And her secondary storylines ring out memorably.” —The New York Times Book Review “This beautifully crafted young-adult novel offers timely insight into the struggles of those who must be their authentic selves no matter where they live.” —Ms. Magazine“Sharp and moving . . . An interesting look at gender identity and gay culture in Iran . . . Also a compelling story about class and the purpose of marriage.” —The Boston Globe
"[A] terrific debut novel . . . Rich with details of life in contemporary Iran, this is a GLBTQ story that we haven't seen before in YA fiction. Highly recommended." —School Library Journal"Accomplished and compassionate . . . A groundbreaking, powerful depiction of gay and transsexual life in Iran . . . An intimate look at life in modern-day Iran and its surprising Westernization, even though much of this culture is clandestine." —Booklist, starred review
“[A] provocative coming-of-age story . . . Throughout this strong debut, Farizan weaves in details of daily Iranian life . . . Within a rigid societal structure, her fleshed-out characters wrestle with depression, hope, complacency, and risk.” —Publishers Weekly
“A convincing portrait of everyday life in post-revolutionary Iranian society . . . While Farizan deals with LGBT issues in this book, she also is writing about the choices all young adults must face. Sahar must find her place in her family, decide which career to follow, and figure out how to let go of a first love—universal themes in all cultures.” —Durham Herald-Sun
BookPage
[A] terrific debut novel. . . . Rich with details of life in contemporary Iran, this is a GLBTQ story that we haven’t seen before in YA fiction. Highly recommended.”
—School Library Journal
Booklist
Farsad uses crisply clipped syllables and a rolling musicality to evoke the accent of Tehran. This is a moving presentation of a powerful story.”
—Booklist
Library Journal - Audio
01/01/2014
Being a teenage girl is tough enough, but when you live in Iran and you're gay—in a country where homosexuality is not just considered sinful but illegal—life seems almost impossible. Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend Nasrin since she was six years old. They've been subsisting on secret romantic encounters and impossible promises, but now that Nasrin is 18, her mother insists that she marry. After the upcoming nuptials, the girls will lose any chance for their relationship to continue. The loss of Nasrin's love is more than Sahar can handle, and she begins searching for extreme ways to make their relationship possible. Listeners will gain insight into life as a gay young woman in an unaccepting world, and Sahar's desperation to be with the one she loves is a story with which all can empathize. Negin Farsad's inconsistency in character voices makes dialog among characters difficult to follow at times, but the overall story is not lost. VERDICT Recommended.—Elizabeth Hoff, Bulverde Spring Branch Lib., TX
School Library Journal
Gr 9 Up—In this terrific debut novel, readers meet Sahar, a 17-year-old student who lives in Tehran. She is smart and ambitious, and she has a secret that could get her arrested or even killed; she is a lesbian and is in love with her best friend. When Nasrin's parents arrange for her to marry a young male doctor, Sahar knows that she and Nasrin will no longer be able to be with each other. When desperate Sahar meets transsexual Parveen at a party given by her gay cousin, she thinks she sees a way to be with Nasrin. In Iran, it is not illegal to be transsexual, as it is to be gay or lesbian, and the state will even pay for sex reassignment surgery because it is seen as a necessary medical procedure. Sahar pursues sex reassignment, dreaming of marrying Nasrin even though she knows in her heart that she doesn't really want to become a man. As Nasrin's wedding approaches, Sahar realizes its inevitability and must decide what she is going to do. Farizan's portrayal of Sahar and her predicament is sensitive and heartbreaking. Even less-sympathetic characters, such as Nasrin and her parents, are portrayed in a nuanced manner; in the culture Farizan depicts, the girls' fears that their romantic relationship will become known are realistic and understandable. Rich with details of life in contemporary Iran, this is a GLBTQ story that we haven't seen before in YA fiction. Highly recommended.—Kathleen E. Gruver, Burlington County Library, Westampton, NJ
Kirkus Reviews
Sahar, a teenage lesbian living in Iran, contemplates desperate measures when she learns the girl she loves is marrying a man. Sahar has loved Nasrin since childhood. Nasrin swears she loves Sahar back, but she is rich, spoiled and unwilling to disappoint her mother, a combination that spells tragedy to readers even though Sahar remains poignantly hopeful. When Nasrin's family announces her engagement to a doctor, Sahar is heartsick. Through her gay cousin Ali's underground network, Sahar meets a woman named Parveen. Upon learning that Parveen is transsexual, Sahar hatches a scheme to transition herself, certain that Nasrin would marry her if she were a man. Gentle, unintrusive exposition clues readers into Iran's political and social realities, and the characters' choices about how to wear head scarves or how openly to talk about same-sex attractions are refreshingly and believably diverse. So too are the members of the transgender support group Sahar attends: The group has a broad enough range of experience that readers never get the message that transition itself is a mistake, only that it is the wrong choice for Sahar. Each character and relationship is kindly and carefully drawn, from Sahar's sad, shut-down Baba to reckless, twinkling Ali. A moving and elegant story of first love and family. (Fiction. 12-18)
