I'll Be Strong for You
A Novel
by Nasim Marashi
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Pub Date Apr 06 2021 | Archive Date Mar 24 2021
Astra Publishing House | Astra House
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Description
Three recent college graduates in Tehran struggle to find their footing in this award-winning debut by Iranian journalist Nasim Marashi. Roja, the most daring of the three, works in an architecture firm and is determined to leave Tehran for graduate school in Toulouse. Shabaneh, who is devoted to her disabled brother and works with Roja, is uncertain about marrying a colleague as it would mean leaving her family behind. Leyla, who was unable to follow her husband abroad because of her commitment to her career as a journalist, is wracked with regret. Over the course of two seasons, summer and fall, in bustling streets and cramped family apartments, the three women weather setbacks and compromises, finding hope in the most unlikely places. Even as their ambitions cause them to question the very fabric of their personalities and threaten to tear their friendship apart, time and again Roja, Shabaneh and Leyla return to the comfort of their longtime affection, deep knowledge and unquestioning support of each other. Vividly capturing three very distinct voices, Marashi's deeply wrought narrative lovingly brings these young women and their friendship to life in all their complexity.
Advance Praise
"Moving....Marashi succeeds at depicting her characters’ limited freedom in an otherwise modern society. Readers of women’s fiction will appreciate this."
— Publisher's Weekly
“This book accomplishes the amazing feat of allowing each of us to recognize a bit of ourselves in its characters, despite being firmly set in Iran. It is filled with realistic and touching portraits that show just how much we have in common with each other, despite our differences, beyond identities and borders. Bravo as well to the translator, Poupeh Missaghi, for the fluidity of the storytelling.”
— Négar Djavadi, award-winning author of Disoriental
"Nothing short of extraordinary. A born enchanter in her native land — Iran — makes landfall on our shores. I couldn't stop reading once I began, and remained, forever, as if on the threshold of her dreams."
— Lila Azam Zanganeh, Booker judge, author of The Enchanter: Nabokov and Happiness
"I've heard lots of buzz about Nasim Marashi's debut novel and after reading I'll Be Strong for You, I am happy to know all the hype was deserved! Marashi delivers this story of three young women in Iran over two seasons with astonishing accuracy, emptahy, and artistry. Their dilemmas are both small and large—the intimacy here is also uniquely universal in its predicament. I am glad we have Marashi as our guide here through this journey into the real soul of Iranian life today."
—Porochista Khakpour, author of Sick and of Brown Album: Essays on Exile & Identity
“I’ll Be Strong for You is a beautiful story of friendship and love, rendered in the context of Iran. At once universal and specific to Iranian familial and social culture, written with an elegant and true pen, it is an extremely endearing novel. The kind of book that one never wishes to finish…”
— Parisa Reza, author of The Gardens of Consolation
Marketing Plan
National media campaign including print, radio, and online coverage * Digital marketing/publicity campaign including features and reviews * Pitch for feature stories and author profiles * Multi-month social media prepublication campaign on Astra House’s Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram * Bookseller outreach * ARC giveaways on Goodreads and NetGalley * Library marketing * Targeted #Bookstagrammer outreach * Highlight in Astra House newsletters and on website * Author events via Zoom from Tehran
For publicity and other inquiries please contact Kathy Daneman at kathy@kathydaneman.com.
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This is an advance reader’s edition from uncorrected proofs. If any material from the book is to be quoted in a review, please check it against the text in the final bound book. Dates, prices, and manufacturing details are subject to change or cancellation without notice.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781662600364 |
| PRICE | $25.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 208 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Char C, Reviewer
Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for giving me an early copy of this book in exchange for a review.
This books follows three young women; Roja, Shabaneh, and Leyla over a summer and autumn whilst they decide the next steps of their lives.
The novel is set out as three chapters in the summer and three in the autumn, each from one of the women's perspective relaying the same day.
It is written as a stream of consciousness. There are times throughout when the novel takes you out of the moment, and you follow the protagonists thoughts and flashbacks which I thought was really well done.
It shows difficult decisions and life-changing moments, and how even the closest of friends cannot know everything that goes on behind closed doors.
There is heartbreak and sadness, these women have been through a lot.
I will say that I didn't necessary feel the closeness between the characters that was told to us. Almost as though all three women felt like they were the outsider of the group?
This book is on its 40th print having been originally written in Persian around seven years ago.
Madalina K, Reviewer
“I’ll Be Strong for You”, by Nasim Marashi, translated from Farsi by Poupeh Missaghi, follows three women in their late twenties, friends since college, in modern day Teheran. All three women (Leyla, Shabaneh, and Roja) are nostalgic about the past and uncertain about the future, and try to set their lives in order while feeling that control is slipping through their fingers.
The book is divided into six chapters, with each friend narrating two chapters each. They cover more or less the same events, naturally through different perspectives, and the timeline also occasionally jumps to the past, to key events that shed light on the women’s present day personalities and dilemmas. The whole novel is written in a stream of consciousness, with the reader being privy to Leyla’s, Shabaneh’s, and Roja’s direct thoughts about what is happening to them, what they fear and long for, as well as what they think about each other and their friendship.
I really enjoyed reading this short novel. I became invested in the lives of the three main characters, and even curious about the recurring side characters that were part of their lives. It was also very interesting to get a glimpse of modern day Teheran. I hope more of Marashi’s works become available in English, as I would definitely like to read more by this author. Thank you to NetGalley and Astra House for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
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