Neda is born in Tehran’s Evin Prison, where her mother is allowed to nurse her for a few months before the arms of a guard appear at the prison door one day and take her away.

    In another part of the city, 3-year-old Omid witnesses* the arrests* of his political activist parents from his chair at their kitchen table, yogurt dripping from his fingertips.

    More than 20 years after the violent* purge* that took place inside Tehran’s prisons, Sheida learns that her father was one of those executed*, that the silent void* planted between her and her mother all these years was not just the sad loss that comes with death, but the sadness and the horror* of murder. These are the Children of the Jacaranda Tree.

    Set in post-revolutionary Iran from 1983 to 2011, this first novel by Sahar Delijani follows a group of mothers, fathers, children, and lovers, some related by blood, others brought together by the tide of history that washes over their lives.

    Finally, years later, it is the next generation that is left with the burden of the past and their country’s tenuous* future as a new wave of protest and political struggle begins.

    The book is a touching portrait* of three generations of men and women inspired by love and poetry, burning with idealism, following dreams of justice* and freedom. It captures the intimate* side of revolution in a country where the weight of history is all around.(SD-Agencies)