Description

The novel sensitively and thoughtfully describes the lives of the Iranian "Lost Generation" marked by revolution, war and emigration and - embedded in a moving family and love story - those events that ended in the decline of one of the oldest monarchies in the world.

"You'll remember yourself, you know? Once you're in Tehran again, if you touch your past again, Heddy, you'll remember!"

Review and press:

Fixpoetry:

The Cologne author Mitra Gaast presented her novel debut in 2014 with "Schatten in Teheran" at Sujet-Verlag. Once again her subject is the violent clash of politics and privacy that is so characteristic of modern Iranian exile literature. Heddy Schmitt boards the plane to Tehran with mixed feelings. But the country of her childhood and adolescence turns out to be a foreign homeland, and when she arrives in Tehran she is mistaken for a foreigner. So she is a kind of prototype of the uprooted Iranian, said anti-hero Literature. (...) more

German teachers abroad:

The reader of the book by Mitra Gaast, an Iranian who has lived in Berlin for a long time, is taken into the world of Hedda. Hedda - Iranian like the author - who fled from Iran to Berlin in connection with the uprisings in 1978, lets the reader participate in her life. After 26 years, Hedda has to return to Iran to divorce her second husband. In the book she describes her special relationship with her dearest friend Pia, with her family and with her childhood friend Amin and many other experiences from her childhood in Iran. The author succeeds in captivatingly describing the relatively complex history of Iran up to the 1980s. Those who do not know the history of Iran that well will find an overview of the main events from 1901 to 1988 at the end of the book - the period that is highlighted in the book. (...) more

It is not enough to live. You need a destiny...

Albert Camus - Man in Revolt