LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER A spellbinding debut novel about the trailblazing Iranian poet
Forugh Farrokhzad who defied society s expectations to find her voice and her destiny A
complex and beautiful rendering of [a] vanished country and its scattered people a reminder of
the power and purpose of art and an ode to female creativity under a patriarchy that
repeatedly tries to snuff it out. The New York Times Book Review (Editors Choice) All through
her childhood in Tehran Forugh Farrokhzad is told that Persian daughters should be quiet and
modest. She is taught only to obey but she always finds ways to rebel gossiping with her
sister among the fragrant roses of her mother s walled garden venturing to the forbidden
rooftop to roughhouse with her three brothers writing poems to impress her strict
disapproving father and sneaking out to flirt with a teenage paramour over café glacé. During
the summer of 1950 Forugh s passion for poetry takes flight and tradition seeks to clip her
wings. Forced into a suffocating marriage Forugh runs away and falls into an affair that fuels
her desire to write and to achieve freedom and independence. Forugh s poems are considered both
scandalous and brilliant she is heralded by some as a national treasure vilified by others as
a demon influenced by the West. She perseveres finding love with a notorious filmmaker and
living by her own rules at enormous cost. But the power of her writing only grows stronger amid
the upheaval of the Iranian revolution. Inspired by Forugh Farrokhzad s verse letters films
and interviews and including original translations of her poems this haunting novel uses the
lens of fiction to capture the tenacity spirit and conflicting desires of a brave woman who
represents the birth of feminism in Iran and who continues to inspire generations of women
around the world. Praise for Song of a Captive Bird If poetry is emotion rendered incendiary
then Forugh Farrokhzad was made of fire. . . . Song of a Captive Bird is an unsparing account
of the necessity and consequences of speaking out. BookPage Sometimes simply choosing whom to
love is a political act. Vogue Forugh Farrokhzad s short life brimmed with controversy and
rebellion . . . .This feminist icon inspired Darznik s imaginative debut. Ms.
