Wow, this book is amazing! As a piece that has been translated to English, the way that it is written still is amazing because you still feel the amount of passion and interest the author originally put into it. This story is incredible and while the main character does seem to have an almost unrealistic life, it feels so real and true because of how well the storytelling is done. This is an example of how to craft a story and craft a place in craft a character and create this beautiful concoction of a book.

I'm currently clearing out all of the books that were published in 2019-20 from my title feedback view!

Though beautifully written, this book missed the mark (but only slightly!) for me. The main character was unremarkable and forgettable - though one could say that maybe his averageness was a uniquely stark contrast against the setting of the book. I was intrigued by this novel inititally because the synopsis gave me 1984-esque vibes, and given that, I wasn't disappointed - although I was much more attached to 1984's main character than I was to the one in Then the Fish Swallowed Him. All in all, this book was interesting enough in the moment, but rather forgettable after I finished it.

Brilliant book. Arian's description of the relationship between storytelling and torture as one that creates a narrative and bodily detachment for the narrator is simply breathtaking. The quotidean details of daily life shift to the specificity of torture and back to the everyday in the smoothest of manners so that the reader is as surprised as the narrator by the way in which his identity shifts (from bus driver to underminer of the regime) depending on what particular personal and political narratives demand, rather than on any "truth" that he can control.

2020 is the year of going out of my comfort zone, of reading works that aren’t American, translated works, first time in English. This is a trend readers are picking up, and one I am excited to be behind. Then the Fish Swallowed Him is Amir Ahmadi Arian’s first novel written in English.

Then the Fish Swallowed Him follows Yunus, a bus driver in the city of Tehran, who becomes arrested after being part of a union protest that becomes violent. Tortured, interrogated, a continuous loop giving a look into what it is like in a political prison. His interrogator, Hajj Saeed, uses mind games to try to get Yunus to crumble, asking the same questions, and giving him little crumbs as if he knows more than he is letting on.

A character anyone can relate to, Arian gives you such in depth into the mind of his main character that it feels as if you too are in prison.

Political and raw, Then the Fish Swallowed Him is sure to reach a wide audience and deservedly so.

Yunus Turabi is a bus driver in Tehran. His life changes the day after he reluctantly participates in the bus drivers strike, after which he reaches his breaking point and loses control. He is taken to the infamous Evin prison for political dissidents where he is tortured and placed in solitary confinement. This is an intense, dark, rather hopeless glimpse into life under despotism.

Yunus Turabi is a bus driver in Tehran who gets stuck taking the fall for a bus driver protest. You wouldn't believe how quickly a society falls apart without bus drivers! Most of the novel is his interrogation where more pieces of his story slowly fall into place. This is very contemporary despite the cover, 21st century Iran.

There's definitely a feeling that Yunus has been... wait for it... thrown under the bus, but has he really? Or is their surveillance just very detailed?

Farah Abdessamad 5 April 2020 Fiction, Reviews
“Then The Fish Swallowed Him” by Amir Ahmadi Arian
Amir Ahmadi Arian (photo: Jason Keith) Amir Ahmadi Arian (photo: Jason Keith)

Tehran bus driver Yunus Turabi, participates in a city-wide strike called by the union. The strike is forcefully repressed. Violence begets more violence. Yunus loses his temper in a bus ride as he remembers his peers beaten by police forces. He is imprisoned shortly after, in a life-altering departure from a previous existence marked by small pleasures and industrious routine. Thrown into a brutal prison world he has no previous acquaintance with, in the notorious Evin Prison no less (“the black hole of Tehran”), 44-year-old Yunus comes to grip with his charges in a story that carefully threads social justice, solitude, and draws on classical prison literature for its depiction of settings, nuance and conflict.

MORE HERE:
https://asianreviewofbooks.com/content/then-the-fish-swallowed-him-by-amir-ahmadi-arian/

Translator of work by Paul Auster, Cormac McCarthy and others, and author of numerous books in Persian, Arian’s hard-hitting debut novel in English, speaks to the life of bus driver (8) Yunus Turabi (186), and his breakdown subsequent to a union strike (8,9) – resulting in a devastating stint in prison. Yunus has lost both his mother and father, and lives alone. (106) When he bumps into co-worker Behrouz, at a grocery store, he invites him to his house for dinner (106) – and to join the bus driver’s union (109). When Yunus participates in an ugly strike, (8,9) the next day, in a state of despair, (19,20) he decides to drive his route, illegally (20,21). When the passengers crowd and harass each other and Yunus, he shatters when a boy confronts him with visceral name calling – and in a moment of pure rage, beats him near to death. Yunus is taken to prison not only for the beating of what turns out to be the son of a minister – but for conspiracy against the government (134). He’s sentenced to four years, spent in a gloomy, lonely cell, where he’s only taken out to be interrogated and beaten (66,153). During this time, he recalls his devastating affair with Behrouz’s wife (15). When he’s finally released, he’s broken, having confessed to a crime he did not commit (187, 188). Sharp, journalistic and an education on the state of affairs for those living as average citizens, in extraordinary circumstances, in Iran today.

As someone who has read multiple books about Iran and Persia in general [and loved them, even the tough ones - it IS amazing what great writing can do for an uncomfortable book], I did not enjoy this book at all. Not even when I switched to an audiobook [because I was having a hard time staying focused - the audiobook helped a little with that, but I was mostly distracted while listening]. It is vulgar and profane [and not in a good way], very poorly written, and while it does show how poorly people are treated within the justice system in Iran, it shows very little else. The blurb makes you think that there is going to be a profound connection and relationship between Yanus and Hajj Saeed, his personal interrogator - both personal and psychological. They are highly mistaken. While they do meet regularly and Hajj attempts to get Yanus to confess to things he has not [and truly was not capable of]doing, there is no real "relationship" there. It was very misleading and I feel that I was deceived into believing this was going to be a book filled with a rich relationship that develops out of the circumstances and nothing actually happens. It was a huge disappointment. Add to that the absolute vulgarity and truly gross descriptions of things Yanus thinks about and does, and you have a book that does not even remotely live up to the hype.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers/HarperVia for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Amir Ahmadi Arian creates what feels very like a modern fable in "Then the Fish Swallowed Him," in which the ordinary life of Yunus Turabi is turned upside down by a union strike. The reader follows Yunus back into the past, seeing Iran (a secondary character, herself) grow and change from the 1970s to the modern day and then forward as he endures arrest, interrogation, humiliation, loss, and a newfound freedom that encapsulates the realization that we are only ever free because the powers that be haven't slammed shut the doors to our cage. Befuddled by the forces that have wrested control of his life, Yunus seeks and answer and is given this: "Look at this through their eyes. You mishandled a strike and beat up working people. The Western media are sitting there like vultures ready to jump on your every single fuckup, and people are glued to their TVs like zombies and believe everything they see. This creates enormous anger. If you're the government, you can't explain it away, but you need to at least have a story to keep your base happy. You understand?" Yunus's story is that story. What should strike and frighten that reader is that the same story could easily have him or her at its center.

Yunus, a bus driver, never expected to find himself under interrogation in Evin Prison but now he's in solitary there with little hope. Arian has shown a light on the repressive tactics used by the Iranian regime against its people. Saeed, his interrogator, pokes, prods, and provokes Yunus. The suspension of time, the claustrophobia of solitary confinement, and the terror of the accused all come through loud and clear. Great writing and intriguing characters made this a very good read. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. For fans of literary fiction and those interested in Iran.

I wanted to love this book so badly! It was on the top of my list of books I really wanted to convince HarperCollins to give me during PLA in a few weeks. Having said that, it isn't a bad book, not by any means at all. Then the Fish Swallowed Him follows apolitical Iranian bus driver Yunus Turabi during and after a citywide bus strike in Tehran. Yunus is arrested and taken to Evin prison where he is beaten, interrogated, and left in solitary confinement.

Arian used amazing prose to bring this story to life, and to demonstrate what life is like under depotism. Though beautifully and poignantly written, I just couldn't get into it. I didn't care about Yunus, and kept waiting for something more to draw me in. Halfway through I realized that something more was probably not going to happen. I'd like to stress that this isn't the fault of the author, rather it was my own expectation of how this story was going to unfold. As such, I hope you see beyond my rating of this story, and take a moment to read the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for hooking me up with an ARC!

Hard one to rate because I am not a fan of the ending style that is used.

3.75 I think, rounded up to a 4. The writing really is incredible and I think just the storytelling and prose are strong enough to carry you through the story. I was engrossed in the turmoil that Yunus was in and I felt the pressure every time he was interrogated. I also felt like I learned a lot about Tehran and their bus union, which I wasn't expecting but was happy to learn about.

This is a heavy and hard-hitting work. But like I said I just am not a massive fan of the ending but I am very pick with those. If you love literary fiction, you'll probably love this.