Disoriental

2019 Lambda Literary Award

"In her remarkable novel, Negar Djavadi beautifully captures the “disorientation” of exile and the attempt to reconstruct a self through family stories." - The New York Times

Kimiâ Sadr fled Iran at the age of ten in the company of her mother and sisters to join her father in France. Now twenty-five, with a new life and the prospect of a child, Kimiâ is inundated by her own memories and the stories of her ancestors, which reach her in unstoppable, uncontainable waves.

In the waiting room of a Parisian fertility clinic, generations of flamboyant Sadrs return to her, including her formidable great-grandfather Montazemolmolk, with his harem of fifty-two wives, and her parents, Darius and Sara, stalwart opponents of each regime that befalls them.

In this high-spirited, kaleidoscopic story, key moments of Iranian history, politics, and culture punctuate stories of family drama and triumph. Yet it is Kimiâ herself―punk-rock aficionado, storyteller extraordinaire, a Scheherazade of our time, and above all a modern woman divided between family traditions and her own “disorientalization”― who forms the heart of this bestselling and beloved novel.

“The novel pulsates with life but does not shirk from violence. The gorgeous prose…takes the edge off the relentless turmoil described throughout.” - The Financial Times

“A momentous saga of modern Iran.” - Publishers Weekly