Roughly midway through the novel a character makes reference to ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ and the reader can sense the influence of Marquez and magical realism throughout the story. As signalled by the nod to García Márquez, the novel applies magic realism with a Persian twist to Iran after the Islamic revolution of 1979, focusing on one family destroyed by the upheaval. The shah’s Literacy Corps is mentioned, but not his secret police. If yes, you know exactly what I am feeling, trying to write a review of Shokoofeh Azar's novel which I finished tonight. We are delighted to include this review in our special edition. It's fascinating to read something so deeply Iranian - lots of mythology and history bleeds into the story - but I like my narratives built on more solid ground. After the 1979 Islamic revolution, a bereaved family seek solace in the ancient forests of northern Iran, in Shokoofeh Azar’s International Booker-shortlisted novel. It’s written in a lyrical magical realism style, which seems bizarre at first – until the author’s purpose becomes clear. It is now on the shortlist for the 2020 International Booker prize – a first for fiction translated from Farsi. She is there to tell the strange story of her mother Roza’s disappearance, the attacks on her sister Beeta, and the destruction of everything her father Hushang holds dear. Detained, he writes a record of his life, investing desperate hope in the power of the imagination to transport him from the “stale minds” of his captors. 309 reviews. A finalist for the International Booker Prize. The middle-aged man said, "All the better! I think it is part and parcel of magical realism. Azar sets the tone of magical realism juxtaposed with harsh realities early on, from the very beginning, when the narrator’s mother receives enlightenment from a greengage tree: “Beeta says that Mom attained enlightenment at exactly 2:35 p.m. on August 18, 1988, atop the grove’s tallest greengage plum tree … It seems every preview of this book gives away the “secret” that Bahar is, at the time she is telling the story, a ghost and the story of her death forms part of the narrative. There's so much more to a country, its people and their culture than can be found in facts. 2020. This is the first review of the International Booker Prize 2020 longlisted book. To see what your friends thought of this book. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a deeply evocative novel written by Iranian born author, Shokoofeh Azar in the years … But, too often, it reads like a draft, tripping up the reader. Delivery charges may apply. The youth’s 13-year-old sister Bahar had burned to death in a cellar when zealots stormed the family home in Tehran – a mansion filled with Persian poetry, tar music and an “uncensored” library, from Rumi and Shakespeare to Sadegh Hedayat’s modern classic The Blind Owl. Azar uses Iranian folk tales and magical realism to convey the effects of the 20th-century Islamic Revolution. Shokoofeh Azar. You don't have to grow up fated to replicate the lives of others. And yet, Beeta was not joyful and it was the sad side of life that she didn't even know she should be joyful in life because there was nothing else she could do. Putting the stress on the word wanted, Dad says most people wanted to get used to everything. The narrative voice is very likeable in this magic-realist ghost story set in post-revolution Iran, but, at least to this reader with zero background in Iranian culture, the novel is often just too similar to the work of Gabriel García Márquez - not quite original enough - for a prize like the International Booker. But the main problem is an ill-conceived, and poorly controlled, teenage narrative (“I was nothing but a delusional dead person”) more reminiscent of magic realism’s New Age spinoff – a cloying genre that went global in the 1990s with novels such as Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s The Mistress of Spices. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is an extraordinarily powerful and evocative literary … (#gifted @thebookerprizes) ‘Or if just once they were to watch and understand the blooming of a flower or birth of a lamb, using their senses of sight and hearing and smell completely, perhaps humans would come to the conclusion that in all the days and nights of their lives, only that minute in which they are immersed is worth calculating.’. “The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is a hugely ambitious book, blending familial drama with the history of a nation during a conflicted era.”—Words Without Borders “Azar’s novel is sad, funny, poetic, … Sadly, the wandering storyline was too hard to follow, and I was never vested in any of the characters, probably because of the utter absence of cohesion. Sadly, the wandering storyline was too hard to follow, and. I kept reading on, hoping the story would improve, but eventually quit @ 53%. See 1 question about The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree…, [ATY 2021] - Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree by Shokoofeh Azar on LonesomeReader, 2020 International Booker Shortlist: The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, May 2020 - The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, Goodreads Members Suggest: 32 ‘Vacation’ Reads. Refresh and try again. The novel depicts the life of a family forced to flee Tehran for … It follows a family from the 1979 revolution to present day Iran. With "The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree", Shokoofeh Azar has created a beautiful, sad fable set in a horrible reality. A stunning novel of dark reflections, Khomeini eventually dies, alone and powerless that style, wrongly... Dark reflections, Khomeini eventually dies, alone and powerless world conjures it instead primarily for western readers prodigiously –... Prize – a first for fiction translated from Farsi it also fills these stories fantastic! 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