The Walking - Softcover

Laleh Khadivi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 140884267X ISBN 13: 9781408842676

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

Iran. 1979. The mullahs have come to power and they want everyone to know. Two young Kurdish brothers, Saladin and Ali, are forced to swear their loyalty to the new regime by taking part in a massacre. In the traumatic aftermath of the killing they flee. For Saladin, the younger, the decision to travel west is exciting; this is the direction of Hollywood, Los Angeles, America. But his euphoria is not enough for the reluctant Ali, who belongs, heart and soul, to the mountain town of his birth. As they cross the treacherous Zagros mountains by foot to Istanbul, to the Azores by freighter and finally as smuggled cargo aboard a plane to Los Angeles, Saladin realises that his dream of a better future can only be fulfilled alone. And as he walks along the hot, shimmering beaches of the promised land, unbearably dislocated, Saladin must define who he will become - and who he's always been. Haunting and beautifully-written, The Walking is a story of exodus; of those many people torn between the lure of home and the lure of hope.

About this title

About the Author:

Laleh Khadivi was born in Esfahan, Iran, in 1977. In the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution her family fled, finally settling in Canada and then the United States. Khadivi received her MFA from Mills College and was a Creative Writing Fellow in Fiction at Emory University. In 2008 she received The Whiting Writers' Award. In 2009 she published her first novel The Age of Orphans. Laleh Khadivi lives in California.

From Booklist:

Khadivi follows up her debut, The Age of Orphans (2009), with a tale of two brothers caught in the crosshairs of the Iranian revolution. Saladin and his older brother, Ali, flee Iran after they are forced to participate in a brutal execution carried out by their father and a mullah. On the run, the teen boys only have each other. They cross the border with two shady drug runners and secure passage in cramped quarters on a ship that takes them to an island where they wait with other refugees for a flight that will take them to a place where they hope to get a fresh start. But it is only Saladin who makes it to Los Angeles to embark on a new life. Khadivi moves back and forth in time to reveal how the brothers came to be separated, but also shifts perspective to allow for a wider look at the plight of the Iranians who didn’t leave the country after the Ayatollah seized power. This is a deeply personal and revelatory novel. --Kristine Huntley

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 140884267X
• ISBN 13: 9781408842676
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272