The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran

  • Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026
  • Finalist for the Premio Strega Europeo 2024
  • Ernst Toller Prize 2023
  • Uwe Johnson Debut Award 2017
  • Shortlisted for the ZDF “aspekte” Literature Prize 2016
  • Ulla Hahn Prize 2016
  • Culture and Sponsorship Award of the Hannover Lutheran Church 2016
  • 85,000 copies sold
  • Complete English translation by Ruth Martin available

A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran.

1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah’s expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid.

1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power.

1999. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories.

2009. Laleh’s brother Mo is more concerned with a friend’s heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down …

A topical, moving novel about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom.

Contact Foreign Rights
Sample Translations
Rights sold to

Arabic: Arab Cultural Center / Brazil: Instante Editora / France: Editions Slatkine / Greece: Psichogios / Italy: Fandango / India (Malayalam): DC Books / Iran: Forough / Korea: under negotiation / Netherlands: Nieuw Amsterdam / Norway: under negotiation / Poland: Znak / Romania: HUMANITAS / Russia: Corpus / Serbia: Laguna / Slovenia: Morfemplus / Spain: Nota al margen / Sweden: Ersatz / Turkey: İthaki / Ukraine: Safran / World English: Scribe 

  • Publisher: KiWi-Taschenbuch
  • Release: 07.09.2017
  • ISBN: 978-3-462-05057-8
  • 288 Pages
  • Author: Shida Bazyar

Awards

  • 2026: Shortlist - The Booker Prize
Buchcover von The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran: Roman
Shida Bazyar The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran
Portrait von Shida Bazyar
© Tabea Treichel
Shida Bazyar

Shida Bazyar , born in 1988, studied literary writing in Hildesheim, and, in addition to writing, worked in youth education for many years. Her debut novel Nachts ist es leise in Teheran (The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran) came out in 2016, won the Blogger Literary Award, Ulla Hahn Prize, and Uwe Johnson Prize, among other awards. The English translation was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026. Her second novel Drei Kameradinnen (Sisters in Arms) was longlisted for the German Book Prize. Her novels have been translated into several languages. 

Further Titles

Show all