Children of the Jacaranda Tree by Sahar Delijani

I really liked this book. It's a novel that follows the lives of children of political prisoners in Tehran, Iran, following the revolution in the 1980's. Some of the children were born in prison, then separated from their mothers. Others watched as their parents were arrested and jailed. Some parents were killed in mass executions, others returned to their families after many years. The children were raised mostly by relatives.

The story encompasses 3 generations....the grandparents and relatives who cared for the children when they were young, the politically active parents who were jailed, and the children themselves as they confronted the reality of life in Tehran as they grew to adulthood. The chapters are each from the point of view of one of the characters. At the beginning it is a woman prisoner in labor, giving birth in a prison hospital,  having her baby with her for a few months, then having to give the baby up to relatives outside the prison. Then we read of a father who sees his child once or twice, several years apart, and is finally killed. There is a chapter about an aunt who helps raise her nieces and nephews. Later chapters are about the children, both as children and as adults. All the characters lives touch and are intertwined in one way or another, as relatives or neighbors or friends or prison mates.

The story traces these lives through different regimes in Iran, and describes in such a personal way how people's lives were affected, how they suffered both from being silent and from being politically active and how the young people growing up dealt with so many frightening things in their lives...loss of parents, lack of freedom, fear of arrest, failed relationships, and so on.

I was especially interested in this book after having read Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi. There were many parallels, particularly in the lives of the women and the oppression they suffered. Reading Lolita is a true story.  Children of the Jacaranda Tree is a novel but I think based on the life of the author who was herself born in Tehran's prison. Delijani has told this story in a rich, poetic, and powerful way. I highly recommend it.