The Septembers of Shiraz

In the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, rare gem dealer Isaac Amin is arrested, wrongly accused of being a spy. In the wake of his terrifying disappearance, his family must reconcile a new world of cruelty and chaos with the collapse of everything they had known.

As Isaac navigates the tedium and terrors of prison, forging tenuous trusts, his wife feverishly searches for him, suspecting, all the while, that their once-trusted housekeeper has turned on them and is acting as an informer. And, as his daughter, in a childlike attempt to stop the wave of baseless arrests, engages in illicit activities, his son, sent to New York before the raise of the Ayatollahs, struggles to find happiness even as he realizes that his family may soon be forced to embark on a journey of incalculable danger.

Dalia Sofer

was born in Iran and fled with her family in 1982. She received her MFA in Fiction from Sarah Lawrence College in 2002 and has been a resident at Yaddo, an artists’ retreat in Saratoga Springs, NY. She lives in New York City.

Dalia Sofer's q & a

What sparked The Septembers of Shiraz?
It was inspired by my own experiences in Iran during and after the revolution of 1979--particularly by the imprisonment of my father, who was wrongly accused of being a Zionist spy.

Where and when is the novel set?
The novel is set mostly in Iran, shortly after the revolution. Much of the story takes place in prison. A smaller part is set in New York, in a Hassidic section of Brooklyn.

Do you have a favourite character in the novel?
I feel closest to Isaac Amin, the family patriarch.

What's your favourite children's book and why?
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery. Because it is one of the most beautiful books about friendship and love, and it kept me company during a very difficult time in my childhood.