BETWEEN THE WIND AND US

In the tradition of Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and
reminiscent of Y by Marjorie Celona, comes a sweeping tale of an
orphan whose journey shapes the lives around her with tragic
consequences. Aria's multigenerational story illuminates the
political chaos and human heartbreak of Iran in the years leading
up to Islamic Revolution of 1979.

1953 Iran: a newborn girl is mysteriously abandoned on a street corner by her teenaged mother. Days later Behrouz, a driver in the army finds the baby and names her Aria. He raises her in the slums of south Tehran, under the gaze of his abusive wife, Zahra. Poor and illiterate, Behrouz battles the dire conditions of poverty in the Shah's Iran. As she gets older, the wild and destitute Aria finds her only solace in a friendship with Ehsan the boy next door. But, through a serendipitous encounter, things soon change. In time Aria charms her way through the echelons of Tehran society, rising from the lowest of classes to the highest, when she is taken in by the aristocratic Ferdowsi family.
As the Iranian nation speeds towards revolution, the mysteries of Aria's origins bring together the various people in her life. Her new best friends, Hamlet and Mitra, the sharp-tongued housemaid Maysi, Ehsan, now a militia fighter in Khomeini's regime, and others connected to the young girl are fated to cross paths in ways unimagined, and in doing so unveil the secrets of Aria's life.
Aria's journey shapes the trajectory of the lives around her, with tragic consequences for some and the possibility of hope for others. This novel follows the multi-generational story of a complex set of characters that illuminate the political chaos and the human heartbreak of Iran in the years leading up to Islamic Revolution of 1979.

NAZANINE HOZAR was born in Tehran, Iran in 1978. Her family moved to Canada in 1985. Her early life experiences in Iran infuse many of the stories she writes. She is a graduate of the University of British Columbia's Creative Writing MFA program.