- Order it on Amazon : The Age of Orphans: A Novel
- Hardcover: 304 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (March 3, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1596916168
- ISBN-13: 978-1596916166
- Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ironic, beautifully written, brutal and ugly, Khadivi’s ambitious debut novel follows a Kurdish boy who is tragically and violently conscripted into the shah’s army after his own people are slaughtered in battle. Assigned the name Reza Pejman Khourdi—Reza after the first shah of Iran, Pejman meaning heartbroken and Khourdi to denote he’s an ethnic Kurd—the boy suppresses all things Kurdish within him, fueled by a sense of self-preservation and self-loathing. Channeling fear and hate into brutal acts against the Kurds, Reza makes a quick climb up the military career ladder, eventually gaining an appointment to Kermanshah, a Kurdish region in the north of Iran. There, as overseer of his own people, Reza promotes Kurdish assimilation and the budding nation of Iran while mercilessly silencing voices of Kurdish independence. As he grows old with his Iranian wife, Meena, Reza’s internal conflicts simmer, then boil over, with unexpected and terrible results. This difficult but powerful novel, the first of a trilogy, introduces a writer with a strong, unflinching voice and a penetrating vision. (Mar.)
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Review
‘This is a stunning debut unflinching, gorgeously poetic, intimate yet with a wondrous sweep of history. To read the tale of Reza Khourdi is to take a journey deep inside the darkest cavity of the heart’ CRISTINA GARCIA, author of National Book Award finalist Dreaming in Cuban ‘Laleh Khadivi is genuinely gifted and ruthless with that gift. We are all so fortunate that she is, for it takes both talent and ruthlessness to delve this deeply into an epic life’ DOROTHY ALLISON, author of National Book Award finalist Bastard Out of Carolina ‘The Age of Orphans is an arresting, powerful, transformative, unflinching, epic and deeply affecting novel. I cannot recommend it enough. A major voice to watch’ Chris Abani, author of Graceland and The Virgin of Flames ‘Khadivi’s writing is luminous in this tragic story of an “orphan of the earth,” which is rendered in prose that is by turns graphic and poetic’ Deborah Donovan, Booklist –