Tehran at Twilight

"A remarkable meditation on violence, & on all the ways one bears witness to pain. Abdoh depicts a pulsating portrait of Tehran? a mad city of entrenched loyalties and corrupt alliances, of smugglers, hustlers, & lifelong runners, of forged documents & lost corpses." —Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz 

The year is 2008. Reza Malek's life is modest but manageable. He lives in a small apartment in Harlem, teaches at a local university, & is relieved to be far from the blood & turmoil of Iraq & Afghanistan where he worked as a reporter, interpreter, & sometime lover for a superstar journalist who has long since moved on to more remarkable men. After a terse phone call from his childhood best friend in Iran, Reza reluctantly returns to Tehran. Once there, Reza finds far more than he bargained for: the city is on the edge of revolution; his friend is embroiled with murderous Shiite militants; his missing mother, who was alleged to have run off with a lover before the revolution, is alive & well; while his own life is in danger. 

Against a backdrop of corrupt mullahs, shady fixers, political repression, & the ever-present threat of violence, Abdoh offers a telling glimpse into contemporary Tehran, and spins a compelling morality tale of identity & exile, the bonds of friendship, & the limits of loyalty.

°°°

Salar Abdoh was born in Iran, & splits his time between Tehran & New York City, where he is co-director of the Creative Writing MFA Program at the City College of New York.