A bit meandering and some inaccuracies in Iranian historical facts. It was just ok. I thought this would be more interesting than it turned out to be. I usually love novels set in the Middle East and historical fiction is one of my favorite genres.

Well-crafted characters but with a plot and history so convoluted it was hard to believe and read. This book would have done better with more likable characters and more historical background to Iran.

This had the potential to be great. But for me the pacing is what truly made it very difficult for me to enjoy. There were parts that seemed to be drawn out for no reason.

The story of a baby girl with a boy's name, Aria, unwanted and left to perish after her birth, was interesting, however, the fact that I know almost next to nothing about Iran as it was in the 1950s, and 1960s and 1970s, until the Revolution, stopped me from enjoying the plot as much as I wanted. I spent a lot of time googling the names and trying to understand the religious complications in Iran at that time, and it was not something that allowed me to go with the flow of this book. On the other hand, the social and historical background sounded intriguing despite the inability to comprehend all niceties. I think a reader with some knowledge of the place and times will find this novel much more compelling.
I cannot say I found the characters likable, except for Bakhtiar who finds the baby and decides to bring her up. Aria herself is a strange girl but perhaps it is all due to being unloved in her childhood and the suffering that fell upon her.
*Many thanks to Nazazine Hozar, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, and NetGalley for an arc in exchange for my honest review.*

Aria by Nazanine Hozar is profound, powerful, and painful to read. I'll think about it for some time to come. I don't usually read books I'd consider sad, so perhaps I should have done more research before I picked this up. Before you read this, make sure you're in the right headspace for a hard crawl through suffering. I'd only recommend it if you think you can handle it.

An interesting read that I'm glad to have discovered. I'll definitely be seeking out more by this author.

I want to thank NetGalley for allowing me a chance to read this book.

The book a difficult read, and one that I would have to return to in time. I feel like I either was not in the right mind-set for it or I just did not click with it.

I heard this author speak at TLA Bookfest and it made me interested in reading. I enjoyed the book and enjoyed the cultural perspective the author was able to include.

Aria opens with the abandonment of a baby girl in a Tehran alley shortly after her birth in the winter of 1953. The infant is quickly discovered by Behrouz, an army driver who becomes a surrogate father and names her Aria. This engrossing opening draws the reader into Nazanine Hozar’s debut novel which chronicles the life of its titular character until 1981. Hozar skillfully weaves this coming of age tale set against the brewing discontent of Tehran as the nation crescendos toward the overthrow of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the 1979 revolution, and the rise of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Continue reading here: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/book_number/4147/aria#reviews

This novel had a strong opening with the prologue and the beginning of part one, although I felt it was difficult to connect with the story and the characters. I didn’t have any background knowledge about Iran’s history and politics, and I was looking for the author to build this background for me so I would have a context for the story.
I love a good character-based novel, but I need to feel a connection to at least some of the character. Unfortunately, in the case of Aria, I didn’t feel that connection. Technically, the writing was fine, but the pacing was too slow to keep me engaged. It’s a DNF for me.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 stars.

This was a miss for me, unfortunately. I found the pacing of this novel to be very strange, as the first 80% really dragged and seemed to not be going anywhere and then the last 20% of the novel was quite chaotic with the Revolution that involved a number of our characters, despite the fact that none of them seemed that involved with revolutionary activities earlier in the novel. Speaking of the characters, I found all of them a bit underdeveloped and was never sure who to root for, as none of the characters were particularly engaging. I also struggled with the timeline of the novel and understanding the greater message Hozar was attempting to convey, although that may be because I went into the novel with basically no knowledge of the Iranian Revolution (or the history of Iran more broadly).

Thank you to Pantheon (Knopf Doubleday) for providing me with an early e-copy of this novel through Netgalley.

this was a really enjoyable read with great characters and a great storyline. I really enjoyed going on this journey and enjoyed the writing style.

Unfortunately, I DNF’d this one at 46%. Really tried to get into ite, but I think a lot of the beauty of the story was lost in translation. The pacing and the long, drawn out parts that didn’t seem to add anything to the plot weren’t to my liking, and I just wasn’t invested in the characters. If this had been a bit shorter, it might have held my interest more.

Aria By Nazanine Hozar

Rating: 2.75 / 5 Stars

Publication Date: 8/25/2020

** Thank you to Netgalley, Pantheon Books, and of course, Nazanine Hozar, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book is a struggle for me to review. Originally, I thought I would give it a 3 out 5 stars, however, I had to deduct .25 specifically because of the inaccurate Iranian History. As a historian, this is always something that bothers me with books. Beyond the inaccuracy, I found it to also be biased. The blatant falsehood with history truly annoyed me (for example, the first chapters mention the political group Fadaian Khalagh). What is the problem? The beginning of the book is based in the 1950s, the group was founded in 1971. Beyond these obvious and easy to fix facts, I found the cultural connections to Muslims to be a bit frustrating.

So, the story - the main reason for my review. The story is focused on four parts and thus four different characters (although they are all connected). I did enjoy this, specifically because I did find some of the characters to be annoying. Aria for example creates many fabrications that don’t make sense. The different parts could also confuse the reader. Behrouz was the one character that made me want to keep reading. I felt his story and POV was the most comprehensive and rich.

I really did want to love this book more than I did. I think these cons made it hard for me to read. There was a lot of potential, but I don’t think this book was for me when it came to the audience.

“A heart is meant to ache; that’s why it’s made of flesh”

This was a sweeping tale set in Iran before and during the revolution. It follows the newborn baby Aria, who is left out in the snow one night and discovered by the most unlikely of men. We see her early years, the way the lives of those who come into contact with her are affected by her, and what becomes of all of them during this tumultuous time. The only complaint I had was that I would have loved to see some of the characters developed a little more, as some of their motivations were left a mystery. Overall I enjoyed this story, and learned a lot about the years leading up to the revolution.

Nazanine Hozar’s latest novel “Aria” traces the political upheaval in Iran from the 1950s to the late 1970s, when Ayatollah Khomeini came into power, and uses it as a backdrop to tell the story of a young girl with a revolving door of mothers.

When Aria was born, her mother knew she couldn’t give her a good life so she abandoned her in an alley, where a childless man later finds her and raises the child as his own, giving her the name Aria. As Aria grows up, first in a poor area of Tehran and later in an affluent part of the city, the orphaned girl gains a collection of different maternal figures who each carries her own secrets and heartaches.

“Aria” is a sweeping tale that explores class, politics and the shifting culture within Iran as Hozar masterfully tells a story of political upheaval through Aria’s eyes and the eyes of her loved ones. As the narration jumps from the perspectives of Aria’s birth mother, her adopted father, her childhood best friend, her new wealthy friends, her various maternal figures, the maid who cares for her and others, Hozar creates an image that explains not only how Khomeini’s regime came to power, but it reveals the sense of disenfranchisement that people felt under the royal family’s regime.

“Aria” reveals more than heartbreak, it highlights the bonds of love that can tether people together despite their different socioeconomic statuses. While the events of the novel itself come to a dynamic conclusion with the rise of Khomeini’s regime, Aria’s personal narrative comes to a more gentle conclusion as she experiences motherhood for herself amid the shifting social structure.

Thank you to Netgalley and Knopf/Doubleday for the free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Aria follows the life of a girl (named Aria) in Iran from her birth in the late 1950s until 1981. The political upheaval and changes in the country are the backdrop to her school days and family life.  Religion is a major theme in the book as well, especially as it intersects with the politics of Iran. The characters include Christians, Jewish people, Muslims, and Zoroastrians. I found the writing very descriptive but not overly so. I enjoyed seeing the streets of Tehran, the different neighborhoods that Aria grew up in, the mountain military camps, and the drive to the Caspian Sea all in my mind's eye. 
I thought the concept of having complicated political and religious topics as the background of the girl's life was interesting. Her childhood friends had very different upbringings and they were constantly telling each other, "my father says your father does xyz... believes the wrong thing..." etc. 

Aria's life is not easy at all, and (CW) child neglect is prevalent in the story. Her father is a sad and complicated figure, as is her stepmother. She also has an adopted mother and her biological mother makes an entrance at one point. There are reasons behind the way they all act and fail Aria in different ways. You should read this book if you like in depth characters, and learning about the history of Iran in the second half of the 20th century.

A big sweeping coming of age tale of a woman in the lead up to the Iranian Revolution. Aria, born in 1953, is orphaned early, She's passed between families, struggling with her own identity as well as with those who shelter, if not love her. Iran, though, is equally coming of age, as this portrays a number of viewpoints and aspects of how the Revolution occurred and moved forward. I learned a bit about this period from this atmospheric and well written novel. Thanks to Netgalley for the ArC. A good read.

Choosing an orphan to guide us through Iran’s chaotic history is a good choice. With attachments to no one she of the red hair and blue-green eyes, has a lot to recount. She is taken in by a Muslim driver in the Iranian Army, but Behrouz’s wife, thinks she must be a djinn and will bring bad luck. When Behrouz is not around, Aria suffers. Though fate, Aria is adopted by a wealthy widow. Aria grows up going to a private French school and pals around with an Armenian Christian boy and a Muslim girl who father has communist leanings and is an anti-royalist. And it is through their eyes, the Iranian Revolution is presented. Mainly we see things through Aria’s eyes as she presents a story of survival. What is most important in this story is the place fear and disinformation in creating a non-democratic world.

Margaret Atwood was right! This book is wonderfully dense and powerful. It alludes to many of the struggles the world faces today and is a time capsule to our past. Bravo!