What the Critics Are Saying:
“Growing up in Iran under the Shah, Shahed’s dream is to leave his hated philanderer dad (Baba) and get to paradise in America, but he winds up pumping gas on the graveyard shift in California, unable to find love or community. He refuses to return for Baba’s funeral in 1979, and when he does go back, three years later, he finds the world transformed by the fundamentalist rule under repressive Islamic radicals. As with many other Iranian novels and memoirs, the violent political turmoil is vividly rendered, the cruelty and suffering both before and after the revolution. But what sets this autobiographical novel apart is the personal detail, the intimate vignettes that show how the past affects Shahed now. Always he is haunted by sexy Houri, the woman he fantasized about as a boy. The father-son standoffs are unforgettable in this wrenching coming-of-age story.”
— Booklist
“An autobiographical novel that looks at changes in Iran between the late 1960s and the early 1980s through the eyes of a 12-year-old Iranian boy and the boy as a man some 14 years later. The childhood scenes are sharply rendered. Baba, Shahed's father, is a selfish, greedy spendthrift and perpetual debtor who literally takes food off Shahed's plate; other men fare no better, from Shahed's opium-addict uncle “E” to a school principal who uses his blindness as an excuse to grope schoolgirls. But then there's the houri (Persian for “nymph of paradise”) of the title, the sexy, wealthy neighbor who was the object of the preteen Shahed's fantasies. Iran's struggles under a repressive regime provide the backdrop to this revealing story, but the book succeeds more as a fictionalized memoir”
— Publishers Weekly
“Journalist Balali’s bitter first novel about Iran, from which he is now banned, contrasts his native country before and after the Islamic revolution. The fearful, drab Iran that the Americanized Shahed visits is a shell of the lively world he remembers. There are public hangings and beatings for small infractions of the strict new religious/social code. Even religious holidays are no longer the joyous, playful occasions of his childhood. But not all Shahed’s memories of pre-revolutionary days are nostalgic. His father tyrannized his family just as the shah dominated Iran’s corrupt society. His son has never forgiven Baba for his affair with Houri, the object of Shahed’s first adolescent longing. Comparisons to The Kite Runner are unavoidable.”
— Kirkus
“As a social studies lesson, alone, Houri by Mehrdad Balali could not be more timely, as the Western world, America in particular, tries to understand Iran as a nation of complex political history, cultural traditions and religious diversity. Rich with insider detail about living conditions especially among the poor—food, feasts, clothes, weddings, circumcisions—joys as well as sorrows—Houri is primarily the story of a family, told by an older son, who has come back as an adult to visit his childhood home. The remembrances, most of them painful (still, children absorb, it is up to grown ups to judge and maybe forgive) constitute the heart of the book. Balali skillfully interweaves domestic and political themes and opens us to a world we know little about—Iran and Iranians who move to this country but are haunted by what they have left behind.”
— Joan Baum, The Independent
“When you begin to read Houri, you are descending into Iranian airspace through the voice of Shahed, a man returning to his homeland on the third anniversary of his father’s death. His name means “witness',” and through his eyes, Mehrdad Balali allows you to see his country juxtaposed in a time warp of culture. Absorbing, it offers a panoramic vision of a country not always defined with such clarity and perspective. A reflective, emotional and ironic story that shouldn’t be missed.”
— Wisteria Leigh in Blog Critics.org
To obtain a copy for review, or to book Balali for political commentary, please contact:
Jenn Deese
Ballantines PR
Jenn@ballantinespr.com
Tel: 310 454 3080
http://www.ballantinespr.com
