Song of a Captive Bird

Reviews

“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)

“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.

“Sumptuously captures a fierce and turbulent life, as well as a vanished country swept away by revolution.”—Newsweek

“A stunning and powerful debut . . . At a time when our country is at war with art and women, this courageous book is required reading.”—Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Remember Me Like This
 
“A thrilling and provocative portrait of a powerful woman set against a sweeping panorama of Iranian history.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Written with the urgent tenderness of a love letter, this soaring novel is a heart-breaker and heart-mender at once—a gorgeous tribute to the brave and brilliant poet remembered in its pages.”—Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage and Silver Sparrow
 
“These are times for stories that bring one culture nearer to another, and that is exactly what Jasmin Darznik has done, pulling close the hearts of girls and women and poets to tell Forugh Farrokhzad’s remarkable story.”—Laleh Khadivi, author of A Good Country
 
“Farrokhzad is known as the Sylvia Plath of Iran, and the two poets were contemporaries, living lives at once starkly different and remarkably attuned, then dying young and tragically. Plath’s renown is universal; Darznik’s enthralling and illuminating novel will introduce Farrokhzad to a whole new world of readers.”—Booklist (starred review)
 
“A beautiful writer! In elegant, intimate prose, Darznik portrays pre-Revolutionary Iran and a woman who transcended the prejudices of her time.”—Susan Cheever
 
“Darznik’s marvelous homage to Forugh captures the frustration and determination she must have felt to overcome the strictures of her environment, beautifully recreating her difficult path to fame.”—Publishers Weekly
 
“Farrokhzad’s determination to live freely and authentically, and to express that determination in her art, proved unbearable to the fundamentalist state. Darznik brings her own poetic sensibility to bear on this tragic, but ultimately inspiring, act of creative remembrance.”—Jonathan Dee, author of The Locals
 
“Alive and sensuous, Darznik’s prose mirrors Forugh’s poetry, making no separation between life and work, leaving open and unguarded that door we so often find closed.”—Donia Bijan, author of The Last Days of Café Leila Expand reviews