Publisher's Synopsis
Fattah is middle-aged and unmarried. A former hospital janitor who became rich working as a torturer in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, he now moonlights as an uncertified backstreet doctor specializing in honour surgery' for unmarried young women. Fattah has nothing but contempt for these women; that is until the beautiful Shahrzad lands on his operating table, and soon he is dangerously infatuated.
Undeterred that she is promised to and in love with another man, the younger and less affluent Mostafa, Fattah sets out to win Shahrzad by any means. Robbed of his bride, the jilted and furious Mostafa launches a desperate plan to move her beyond his rival's reach by falsely reporting her as an opponent of the regime, a mission that takes him deep into Tehran's underworld of criminals and provocateurs.
In Amir Cheheltan's critically acclaimed and searing novel his first to be translated into English power and corruption in post-revolutionary Iran are exposed through the actions of two men who work to exploit the chaos and confusion for their own benefit. The result is a provocative tale of a divided society where religious devotion and cruelty often go hand in hand.
Undeterred that she is promised to and in love with another man, the younger and less affluent Mostafa, Fattah sets out to win Shahrzad by any means. Robbed of his bride, the jilted and furious Mostafa launches a desperate plan to move her beyond his rival's reach by falsely reporting her as an opponent of the regime, a mission that takes him deep into Tehran's underworld of criminals and provocateurs.
In Amir Cheheltan's critically acclaimed and searing novel his first to be translated into English power and corruption in post-revolutionary Iran are exposed through the actions of two men who work to exploit the chaos and confusion for their own benefit. The result is a provocative tale of a divided society where religious devotion and cruelty often go hand in hand.
