We are very excited to invite you to an afternoon with Shokoofeh Azar on August 21, Saturday at 3:00 pm IST, where she will speak to Kavya M of Champaca Bookstore, to talk about this book, as well as writing and the imagination in times of censorship and authoritarianism. Watch it live on YouTube.
In February, we read Shokoofeh Azar's The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree as our #ChampacaBookSubscription read for the month. It was a book that reminded us how lucky we are to be able to read books together, and how this is a precious freedom to be guarded. We are thrilled to be hosting this event with Shokoofeh Azar.
The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree, from Europa Editions, takes us to life in Iran under Ayatollah Khomeini’s regime, which we see through the life of a family who flee Tehran after their home, their belongings, their books are all burnt down by a zealous mob. The lush magical realist prose, a nod also to Persian storytelling traditions, show us how brutal censorship may try to strangle culture and expression, but the power of books and storytelling, imagination and fantasy endures. Azar’s own life has echoed this family’s story in a way, because she too had to escape Tehran, as a result of writing this, a book critical of the Ayatollah's rule. Buy your copy on our online bookstore, which ships across India.
Shokoofeh Azar moved to Australia as a political refugee in 2011. She is the author of essays, articles, and children’s books, and is the first Iranian woman to hitchhike the entire length of the Silk Road. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, originally written in Farsi, is her first novel to be translated into English.