Shokoofeh Azar: After the Iranian Revolution (2020 Event)

When Shokoofeh Azar received the news that she was the first ever
Iranian writer to be shortlisted for the International Booker
Prize, she was transported back to when she was 15 years old, ‘in
the village, surrounded by rainforest and rice fields, and
dreamed of someday I would win this award as an Iranian writer.’


The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is an incandescent novel
that intertwines Persian history and folklore with magical
realism, to tell the story of one family in the decade following
the 1979 Iranian Revolution. It is a celebration of life and
imagination in the face of chaos and brutality, as well as a
lyrical response to curbs on freedom of expression. Azar herself
settled in Australia as an asylum seeker in 2011, but her
translator — shortlisted alongside her for the prize — wishes to
remain anonymous, for fears for their safety. She talks to
Marjorie Lotfi Gill in this event recorded for
the 2020 Book Festival.