Zulaikha - Niloufar-Lily Soltani - ★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Niloufar-Lily Soltani

GENRE: Middle-East Fiction.

PUBLICATION DATE: November 9, 2023

RATING: 3.75 stars.

In a Nutshell: The story of an Iranian woman and her life in her motherland, beginning from 1958. Covers a lot of Iranian history as well as the struggles of women in the patriarchal society. Drags a bit in the final section, but overall, an insightful OwnVoices read.

Plot Preview:

In 2007, while returning to Tehran after visiting her son Sohrab in Amsterdam, Zulaikha runs into Kia, an old friend she hasn’t seen in almost forty years. Kia is also flying back to Tehran for the funeral of his father. This chance encounter spawns some unexpected events. At the airport itself, Zulaikha is taken into custody for being questioned about her relationship with Kia. Once she is allowed to go and she reaches Tehran, the Iranian authorities also harass her.

The story then moves to 1958, where thirteen-year-old Zulaikha, residing in Khuzestan in Southern Iran, has just been informed that she cannot continue her studies as educated girls have no future. How the young girl navigates her life across the challenges that come her way, what events lead to her being questioned at the two airports in 2007, and what happens next comprises the rest of the story.

The story comes to us in Zulaikha’s limited third person perspective.

The blend of contemporary and historical works well in this literary novel focussed on an ordinary Iranian woman. Through her eyes, we get to see the patriarchal and religious dominance in Iran as well as the historical upheavals that the country has faced since decades, be it the Iranian Revolution of the late 1970s, Reza Pehlavi’s monarchy being overthrown by the theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, and the aftermath of all these events.

Reading this book actually feels like you are transported to Iran. It imbues the culture and the beliefs of the region into the plot with just as much vigour as it incorporates the negative aspects such as the misogyny and the post-revolution fallout.

The writing never gets historically intensive, so the story stays mostly accessible even to those who might not know of these events and places in detail. Moreover, the content never feels gruesome, though there are several intense moments. The writing stays focussed on the characters than on the historical chaos, thereby sheltering the reader from directly traumatic incidents. However, as someone who relishes Asian history, I would have liked a little more detail about the reasons behind the facts as well. There is a brief introductory note at the start about Khuzestan’s history, but I’d have liked this content to be blended into the novel as well.

Zulaikha makes for an interesting titular character. As that stunning cover indicates, her life undergoes many vicissitudes because of her family, her partners, and also because of the socio-political alterations in the region. While I appreciated her grit, I liked her greys even more. Despite being a young Muslim character in a conservative society, Zulaikha isn’t portrayed as a naïve girl who loses her way after being kicked around by life. Rather, she is strong and independent to the extent possible in her circumstances, and doesn’t hesitate to know her needs: material, emotional, or physical. Thus, she makes for a complex lead character.

There are many other characters in the story, some of whom are as layered. But as we get the story mainly through Zulaikha’s perspective, some of these characters become known to us only to a limited extent, making them feel flat.

The main themes in this book are exactly as you would expect from that premise, though the author also tries to incorporate the intricacies of human relationships in various forms – parental, spousal, sibling, friend. The story brings out well the importance of having a survival instinct when you can’t control the events around you.

The pacing of the book is quite fast for most of the way. The writing makes great use of the setting without bogging us down in needless descriptive prose. It is only in the final quarter that the story drags much, probably because we need to feel as frustrated as Zulaikha does with her situation.

The author seems to have a fondness for poetry, and hence, there are many characters who spout poems at apt moments. Most of these verses are by noted Iranian poet and artist Sohrab Sepehri, so those who enjoy poetry will relish these interludes. However, as my friends know, my poetic bone is non-existent, so after a point, I just skipped these poems.

The ending didn’t satisfy me as much as I had expected as it felt a little abrupt. While it does offer a realistic closure to Zulaikha’s arc, I was hoping for a more settled conclusion. In addition, there should have been a little more clarity during scene transitions. There are some scenes with random perspective jumps and extended conversations without clear indicators of the speaker. These hinder the reading tempo and comprehension. Also, I wish some of the male characters had distinct names. Keeping Abu, Abbass, Assef, and Abdul straight was tricky, though the names are culturally familiar to me.

That said, there is a detailed list of character names at the start, and also a helpful glossary of Farsi words. I love it when such add-ons are placed at the start. If they are at the end, we don't even realise their presence until we complete the book.

All in all, I liked this indie novel a lot, for its lead character as well as its historical complexities. Despite some areas where it could have worked better, it is still a laudable debut work, highlighting a region and a time that barely finds mention in mainstream fiction.

Recommended to fans of historical fiction and Middle-East fiction.

My thanks to River Street Writing for a complimentary copy of “Zulaikha”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.