The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

By: Shida Bazyar, Ruth Martin - Translator - translator

Narrated by: Anoushka Rava, Dana Haqjoo

A captivating, polyphonic tale of one family’s flight from and return to Iran.
1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah’s expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid.
1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power.
1999. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories.
2009. Laleh’s brother Mo is more concerned with a friend’s heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down …
A topical, moving story about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom.©2025 Shida Bazyar (trans. Ruth Martin) (P)2025 W.F. Howes Ltd.

Great insight into the lives of displaced peoples

Excellent book and read very well by different voices bringing the words alive 🙏 colour sound smells voices all alive

Role of left in Islamic Revolution and generational trama

This book has so much potential as it started to give perspective of the left in 1957 Revolution. However, it took a really boring turn to migrating and a familiar story. As for performance, it wasn’t good at all and pronunciations were bad. The ending was really abrupt, rushed and without build up or context.
There are emotional parts that resonated with me personally. The author did a good job depicting the yearning and the dual life that most Iranian diaspora experience; deeply invested in freedom movement of Iran and connected to families while keeping an everyday lifestyle. It’s also a good reminder of generational trama and how the children and their children carry the pain of the parents…