The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin, is a 2025 polyphonic novel (longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize) following an Iranian family's, specifically revolutionaries Behzad and Nahid, journey of flight to Germany and return over four decades. The novel, published by Scribe UK, deals with themes of exile, memory, and political resistance. Long-listed for the 2026 International Booker Prize, the book is described as a "quietly beautiful" yet powerful exploration of the trauma of losing one's homeland.
“Since the Revolution, we have been venturing into buildings we didn’t know before. Before, we were in living rooms, sometimes in secret offices, sometimes on buses, visiting the movement in other cities. Since the Revolution, all doors seem to have opened, to let everyone in everywhere. Evin Prison, open to visitors. The place to which we lost our brothers and sisters in all those years of struggle against the monarchy — a place that was actually never a place, but a parallel world, a parallel hell. The people who came out didn’t talk about what had gone on inside; the people who came out had done their talking inside, and perhaps that was the most sinister thing about it. Evin Prison, a place that consumes people, a place almost too much discussed to be true. Suddenly the doors were open. Suddenly we were going in. Suddenly it was no longer a place of torture, but of the greatest derision. This Shah isn’t coming back, every wall, every door screamed out.”
Excerpt From The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran Shida Bazyar (Translated by Ruth Martin)
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