DAC in collaboration with Cultural Services | French Embassy in the US present a book reading of "My Part of Her" by celebrated Iranian novelist Javad Djavahery, who will be on a book tour in February and March 2020 in the U.S. Berkeley-based author Anita Amirrezvani will read from Mr. Djavahery's book and lead a conversation with him. Interpretation from Persian to English and vice versa will be available. This is a free event and is open to public. Refreshments will be served.

About the Author

Iranian novelist and short story writer, Javad Djavahery currently resides in Paris after being forced to flee Iran and claim refuge in France at the age of 20. For many years he lived as a political refugee, waiting to return to his home country. During these years, he owned nothing more than what could fit in a suitcase. When asked where he’s from, Javad responds by saying that he was born once in Iran, and then a second time at the age of 20 in Rennes, his adoptive city. He have not returned to Iran since his departure, which allows him “to preserve in my memory images of a country that no longer exists.” Shifting between literature and film, he has produced many films and co-written numerous screenplays including Red Rose (directed by Sepideh Farsi). A bilingual author, he has two short story collections in Persian. His first novel Soupir de l’Ange was published by Éditions de l’Aube. His second novel, Ma part d’elle (My Part of Her) was published in 2017 by Gallimard.

About the Book: My Part of Her

For our unnamed confessor, the summer months spent on the Caspian Sea during the 1970s are a magically transformative experience. There, he is not the “poor relative from the North,” but a welcome guest at his wealthy cousin Nilou’s home and the gatekeeper of her affections. He revels in the power of orchestrating the attentions of her many competing admirers, granting and denying access to her would-be lovers and divulging intimate details of her life. In a moment of jealousy and youthful bravado, he betrays and humiliates an unlikely suitor, unwittingly setting into motion a series of events that will have drastic repercussions for all of them as the country is forever transformed by the Iranian Revolution a few short years later.

Over the course of twenty years, the lingering effects of that summer propel the friends in their vastly different responses to radicalization as the country is plunged into political and cultural turmoil with the rise of a strict religious regime. Their surprising final reunion reveals the consequences of revenge and self-preservation as they each must decide whether and how to forget the past. In My Part of Her, celebrated exiled Iranian author Javad Djavahery captures the innocence of youth, the folly of love, and the capriciousness of fate as these friends find themselves on opposing sides of the seismic rifts of history.

About Anita Amirrezvani

Anita Amirrezvani is the author of the novel Equal of the Sun and The Blood of Flowers, which has been published in more than twenty-five languages and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. She teaches at the California College of the Arts and Sonoma State University. See more here: http://anitaamirrezvani.com/

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