Mahbod Seraji
publisher
NAL Trade
format
Paperback
pages
368
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If I were still teaching high school English, I would require my students to read ROOFTOPS OF TEHRAN, an unforgettable novel of young love and coming of age in a nation headed toward revolution. Mahbod Seraji, the author of this novel, was at BookGroup Expo in San Jose last October, and my friend Carol Fitzgerald and I had lunch with him. When I read the galley, I was most impressed, and particularly because the book makes clear a situation about the Iranian revolution that I would never have known about. This is another example of a novel explaining an epoch in history so much better than a news article. Villanova University selected ROOFTOPS OF TEHRAN for its One Book Villanova Program where 7500 students will read the book and participate in discussions with Mahbod.
This novel takes place in a middle-class neighborhood in Iran’s sprawling capital city, and seventeen year old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend, Ahmed, joking around and talking about the future. Even as Pasha asks burning questions about life, he also wrestles with a crushing secret. He has fallen in love with his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been engaged since birth to another man. Despite Pasha’s guilt-ridden feelings for her, during the long, hot days his tentative friendship with Zari deepens into a rich emotional bond.
The bliss of those perfect stolen months is shattered in a single night when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah’s secret police. The violent consequences awaken Pasha and his friends to the reality of living under the rule of a powerful despot and lead Zari to make a shocking choice from which Pasha may never recover.
Mahbod Seraji came to America in May of 1976, with the intent of obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering, and then returning to Iran to work in its booming construction industry. But it wasn’t long after his arrival that upheaval and turmoil swept his country -- the Shah was overthrown in 1979, the American diplomats in Tehran were taken hostage by a group of radical university students, and Saddam Hussein’s army attacked Iran, starting a war that lasted over eight years and claimed over one million lives – and Mahbod was forced to change his plans by staying at the University of Iowa until 1989 and securing his Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees.
Beyond the book
The book website includes a full biograghy of Seraji, a discussion guide, reviews, andsome interesting insight from the author: