Amir Ahmadi Arian

Then the Fish Swallowed Him offers a perceptive and painful look at life in post-revolutionary Iran. The central character is Yunus, a largely apolitical bus driver who participates in a strike and quickly finds himself a prisoner under interrogation. This novel is an Iranian equivalent of Darkness at Noon, or even The Trial, in which a man finds himself fighting unjustified accusations that are never fully revealed to him.

Because he is kept in solitary confinement, Yunus comes not just to fear his interrogator, but also to feel an unsettling connectedness with him. His perspective on his small cell grows and diminishes during his imprisonment. At times, he has an ability to see the vastness his cell can contain and the freedom to think that it offers, and he uses these to strengthen himself. At other times, the space is claustrophobic and atemporal—time has stopped and Yurus is in surroundings so bare they can seem like nothingness itself.

The questions this novel asks about justice—in all the complicated senses of that term—make it an engrossing, rewarding read. I also appreciated the glimpse of ordinary life in Iran during and after the revolution, which challenges the "good guys-bad guys" narrative in which recent Iranian history is depicted in the west.

I receives a free electronic review copy of the novel from the publisher via EdelweissPlus. The opinions are my own.… (meer)