Celebrated Iranian novelist and short story writer Javad Djavahery is embarking on a US Tour for the release of My Part of Her, translated by Emma Ramadan and to be published by Restless Books on February 11, 2020. Originally published by Gallimard in 2018 with the title Ma part d'elle.
Iranian novelist and short story writer, Javad Djavahery currently resides in Paris after being forced to flee Iran and claim refuge in France at the age of 20. For many years he lived as a political refugee, waiting to return to his home country. During these years, he owned nothing more than what could fit in a suitcase. When asked where he’s from, Javad responds by saying that he was born once in Iran, and then a second time at the age of 20 in Rennes, his adoptive city. He has not returned to Iran since his departure, which has allowed him “to preserve in my memory images of a country that no longer exists.” Shifting between literature and film, he has produced many films and co-written numerous screenplays including Red Rose (directed by Sepideh Farsi). A bilingual author, he has two short story collections in Persian. His first novel Soupir de l’Ange was published by Éditions de l’Aube. His second novel, Ma part d’elle (My Part of Her) was published in 2017 by Gallimard.
About the Book: My Part of Her
For our unnamed confessor, the summer months spent on the Caspian Sea during the 1970s are a magically transformative experience. There, he is not the “poor relative from the North,” but a welcome guest at his wealthy cousin Nilou’s home and the gatekeeper of her affections. He revels in the power of orchestrating the attentions of her many competing admirers, granting and denying access to her would-be lovers and divulging intimate details of her life. In a moment of jealousy and youthful bravado, he betrays and humiliates an unlikely suitor, unwittingly setting into motion a series of events that will have drastic repercussions for all of them as the country is forever transformed by the Iranian Revolution a few short years later.
Over the course of twenty years, the lingering effects of that summer propel the friends in their vastly different responses to radicalization as the country is plunged into political and cultural turmoil with the rise of a strict religious regime. Their surprising final reunion reveals the consequences of revenge and self-preservation as they each must decide whether and how to forget the past. In My Part of Her, celebrated exiled Iranian author Javad Djavahery captures the innocence of youth, the folly of love, and the capriciousness of fate as these friends find themselves on opposing sides of the seismic rifts of history.
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