DAKHMEH

An Iranian man whose family fled to America during the Iranian Revolution returns to his childhood home in this restrained but passionate novel by a first-time author writing under a pen name. Though Arash was just a boy when he came to the United States, he never felt comfortable there. His mother and sister beg him not to return to Iran, but when his mother dies, he buys a one-way ticket to Tehran. His dreamlike wanderings in the city and his musings on the problems of his fellow Iranians are recorded in a journal he keeps and also in a third-person narrative. This double-layered storytelling gives his otherwise bleak tale a gauzy, mythical aura. Upon his arrival in Tehran, he moves aimlessly about, losing himself in memories. He meets a woman and is with her for a while, but breaks things off when he decides that he is too unsettled to give her what she needs. He dreams of solving the country's problems, "having tasted freedom and knowing there was a better way," but is mocked when he speaks of his hopes for Iran. A modest, spontaneous gesture of revolt—he writes anti-regime messages on a succession of banknotes—lands him in prison, where he is tortured and suffers from tuberculosis. The investigator who tracks him down is a former revolutionary and feels a twisted sympathy for Arash. The muted ironies of Noori's tale are conveyed with delicacy and provide a sophisticated perspective on the plight of the Iranian people. (July)