AustLit

'Shokoofeh Azar's The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree is an astoundingly imaginative work of fiction with deep roots in Persian culture. The novel depicts the life of a family forced to flee Tehran for the countryside after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. The narrator of the novel is a thirteen-year-old ghost named Bahar, who was killed in a particularly horrifying way. Bahar is the youngest of three siblings: Sohrab, her older brother, is arrested, tortured, and eventually executed; and Beeta, an older sister, is transformed into a mermaid. Her mother, who attains enlightenment after spending three days and three nights atop a greengage tree overlooking the village, struggles to make sense of the events that have disrupted their lives. Bahar’s father is perhaps the most melancholic of the family. He is the quietest, most introspective of the five and is also the last to survive.'  (Introduction)