NAZANINE HOZAR in conversation with John Irving as part of TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF AUTHORS at Harbourfront Centre (235 Queen Quay West) on Friday (October 25), 7 pm. $18. festivalofauthors.ca.
Nazanine Hozar’s Aria (Knopf, $24.95, 456 pages) is a work of historical fiction that follows its eponymous character, a girl orphaned a few days after being born. Drama swirls around Aria’s extended family, but it’s the setting – the political turmoil of 50s, 60s and 70s Tehran, full of diverse religious, culture, political and class viewpoints – that makes the book a page-turner.
Hozar’s characters are from differing backgrounds and distinct areas of Tehran, a city divided into an affluent north and poorer south. Through accessible language, she vividly captures the feel of alleyways, courtyards, markets and overlapping class experiences and faiths: Islam, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and Baha’i, with ancient mythology woven in. Hozar spent a decade researching and writing Aria, and it shows. Ahead of Hozar’s TIFA appearance, I caught up with her to chat about the value of historical fiction in setting right the wrongs of history.
What kind of research did you do before writing the novel? Is it based on family stories, societal knowledge or academic documentation?
The research for this novel was pretty thorough. I spent a year and a half at the library learning about Iran in the 50s, 60s and 70s. I read several books about the society, watched many documentaries, read documents from several sources: the United Nations, Amnesty International, etc. I also know about the society and culture, having come from it myself.
Aria takes place over a long period of time, weaving a large cast of characters and complex narratives. How long did Aria live inside you before you put her into words?
I think I conjured up Aria when I was around 17 – that’s when she first appeared in my head. It wasn’t until about 13 years later when I first put her on the page. My real training as a writer took place at Simon Fraser University’s Writer’s Studio in 2007 with my teacher at the time, Wayde Compton. He was the best teacher. Very practical, with realistic expectations and an unromantic view of writing. My process is simple. I write 500 words a day. If you do that, you eventually get to where you need to be.
Aria encounters different class and religious experiences through her biological and adoptive families rather than coexisting with friends and neighbours out in the world.
I wanted to take the reader through a journey from one lifestyle to another, but within an intimate family context. I wanted prejudice and fear to be experienced in the most intimate of environments. I found that dynamic interesting. Coexistence does occur in this book, too –Aria is friends with a Christian Armenian boy, and her other best friend has a very religious Muslim mother and an atheist father. I wanted both types of life to be present: togetherness and separateness are realities of human life. We do not live in utopias.
The novel challenges stereotypical ideas of Iran as a monolithic Islamic place that’s especially oppressive to women. Did you write with Iranians or non-Iranian readers in mind?
That was always on my mind: Who am I writing this for? Again, I think both. I want non-Iranians to know what Iran is truly like, to see it as more than just that “hated” country in the Middle East, to know its deep and rich culture, its beauty as well as its flaws and, yes, to see the country more accurately. I also wanted to write for Iranians so they could have a historical record of an important and turbulent time in their country – documentation, albeit in fiction, of the truth of their lives. A different type of power has been writing the history of the Iranian people for the past 40 years, and this history – biased and harmful – has been a detriment to Iranians ever since. I was hoping to tell a truer history.
What drew you to historical fiction? Did you work within it because of this particular story, or is it a genre you’d want to work within again?
I’m drawn to it for now, at this point in my writing life. The novel I’m currently working on is also based on history. That might change with subsequent novels. But I think there will always be an element of history in the work I do. I do love history and research it quite a bit. This is probably because I was born into such a historical place at such a historical time. The weight and significance of history has always been a factor.
What are your favourite historical novels?
Toni Morrison, Rohinton Mistry. The best historical novel I can remember reading is Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières. I also love non-historical works. Julian Barnes’s The Sense Of An Ending is one of my favourite novels. I’d love to be able to write something like that.
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