Martyrdom Street
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
2010
Syracuse University Press
Set during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and the ensuing Iran-Iraq War of 1980-89, the novel "Marlyrdom Street" chronicles the lives of three Iranian women, Fatemah, Nasrin, and Yasaman. These ordinary women tell their intimate stories of love, loss, betrayal, and hope in interwining narratives that unfurl simultaneously in America and Iran. Kashani-Sabel's characters endure both the familiar struggles of family relationships and searing political upheavals. A mother and daughter come to terms with the burdens of separation imposed by politics and exile: A young woman grapples with the haunting memories of an assassination. The poignant confessions of these skillfully wrought characters give voice to the travails of two generations of Iranians and Iranian Americans.