Mahbod Seraji
ROOFTOPS OF TEHRAN is a richly rendered first novel about courage, sacrifice, and the bonds of friendship and love. In clear, vivid details, Mahbod Seraji opens the door to the fascinating world of Iran and provides a revealing glimpse into the life and customs of a country on the verge of a revolution.
"...charmingly romantic. Seraji captures the thoughts and emotions of a young boy and creates a moving portrait of the history and customs of the Persians and life in Iran."
--Publishers Weekly, March 2009
"Seraji’s wonderful coming-of-age story is at times funny and sweet as well as thought-provoking and heart-wrenching."
--Booklist April 2009
"Refreshingly filled with love rather than sex, this coming-of-age novel examines the human cost of political repression."
--Kirkus May 2009
“Repression and revolution provide the background for a deeply felt love story that gives outsiders a rare look inside modern Iran. This is a gripping account of a nation's violent lurch from one kind of tyranny to another, and also a delicately insightful portrait of how ordinary people react when their worlds suddenly collapse. At a time when we urgently need to know more about Iranians, Rooftops of Tehran introduces both the complexity of their political history and the richness of their emotional lives.”
--Stephen Kinzer, author of "All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror"
A captivating read."
-- Gail Tsukiyama, The Samurai's Garden
“A stirring story about the loss of innocence, Rooftops of Tehran reveals a side of Iran understood by few Westerners. An ambitious first novel—full of humor, originality, and meaning. ”
-- John Shors, Beneath a Marble Sky
“Rooftops of Tehran evoked many memories, along with tears and smiles of starry nights on rooftops, long-lost loves, and intense, passionate feelings of anger at the injustices and the absurd excesses of the Pahlavi regime.”
-- Nahid Mozaffari, Strange Times, My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature
“In his haunting debut novel, Mahbod Seraji brings humor and humanity to a story of secret love in the brutal last days of the Shah. Set against the background of repression that launched the Iranian revolution, Pasha’s and Zari’s story shows that love and hope among the young thrive even in the most oppressive of times. Seraji is a striking new talent.”
-- Sandra Dallas, Tallgrass
“Rooftops of Tehran combines a coming of age love story with a compelling tale of struggle against dictatorship. You learn a lot about Iranian culture while coming to understand characters with universal appeal. This would make a great movie. Unfortunately, Iranian directors wouldn't be allowed to film it and American directors would move the story to New Jersey.
-- Reese Erlich, The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of US Policy and the Middle East Crisis
"What a profound pleasure to discover such solid storytelling and splendid prose in a debut novel. With the voice of a poet, Seraji has told a universal tale of love, loss, and ultimately of hope. It is this hope, most of all, that will linger long after the last page is turned. Thank God for authors like Seraji, who show us that no matter how distant apart our worlds may be, in the humanness of our hearts we are all united."
-– William Kent Krueger, Red Knife and the award-winning Cork O’Connor series
“Beyond being a bittersweet love story, Rooftops of Tehran is a story of community. No reader will be unfamiliar to the situation of the alley -- the neighborhood -- where these characters are united and bound together by history, ritual, grief, respect, and by the bond of protection that arises under the brutality of an oppressive government. Rooftops of Tehran takes an uncommon and refreshing view of Iran in modern American fiction…and also reveals how an American immigrant is born out of a young foreigner's desperation for self-de
“People do amazing things for love. Books are full of wonderful stories about this kind of stuff, and stories aren’t just fantasies, you know. They’re so much a part of the people who write them that they practically teach their readers invaluable lessons about life.”
“Seventeen's not a good age. That's when you realize that you have a heart. That's when feelings get in the way of thinking.”
“...jer bih s tobom radije u pakao nego bez tebe u raj!”
“Pogledaj sve ovo",pokazuje rukom prema nebu."Vidiš li koliko je golemo?A ipak je uređeno,planirano?Bog je svoja pravila i zakone primijenio na sve,pa zašto bi ti bio iznimka?”
“Život je takav,znaš.Sve se mora izjednačiti.Ničega ne smije biti ni previše ni premalo.”
“Nemoj tako ozbiljno shvaćati život,ionako iz njega nećeš živ izaći.”
“...mrzim tu nepovratnost vremena...”
“Osvojila mi je srce poput nemilosrdnoga vojskovođe i sad sam rob misli i osjećaja kojima ne mogu vladati.Misli mi lutaju u pravcima koje ne odabirem sam i obuzimaju me napadi tjeskobe kojima ne znam izvor.Umirem od želje da je vidim,da razgovaram s njom,da je pogledam u oči...”
“...ponekad je jednostavnije ne razmišljati o stvarima koje ne možeš promijeniti...”
“...a u ljubavi se oslanjaš na intuiciju vlastitog srca...”
“Vrijeme je možda najvrednija stvar koju svaki čovjek posjeduje,ali to je vrlo teško shvatiti kada prolazi sporo.Mnogo ga je lakše smatrati dragocjenim kada leti i brzo izmiče.”
“Sometimes I find myself sitting in one spot for hours, staring at nothing, thinking of nothing, feeling nothing, and most disturbingly, caring about nothing.”
“- Excellent, excellent, your plan is working. -- What plan? - I ask.- The plan to make her wonder if you love her. Nothing makes a women more curios then the suspicion that she’s loved by someone. She’ll do anything to confirm it now, you see. She’ll go out of her way to find out if you really do. That’s just human nature. Who doesn’t want to be loved? -”
“Don't take life too serriously; you'll never get out of it alive!”
“Loving is a laborious and complex business.”
“Trust me. A storm is brewing inside this cool cat now. She'll gradually break down and you'll see what's behind the clouds.”
“I couldn't stand by and watch you put yourselves in harm's way. No way. And fuck those SAVAK bastards, and their Western masters, and the grand servant of the West. Fuck anyone who wants to put me in jail because I stood by my friends to mourn the death of a hero, screw them all. I don't care if I have to spend the rest of my life behind bars, I don't, I really don't. I learned today that friendship is worth making sacrifices for. Doctor proved that life is a small price to pay for your beliefs.”