In poignant, breathtaking prose, Mahbod Seraji’s stunning debut novel lays bare the beauty and brutality infused into the centuries-old Persian culture, while reaffirming the human experiences we all share: laughter, tears, love, helplessness, and above all, hope. Pasha and Ahmed are 17 years old and just beginning their last year of high school in the summer of 1973. The violent consequences awaken Pasha and his friends to the reality of life lived under the rule of a powerful despot, and leads Zari to make a shocking choice from which Pasha may never recover. Rooftops of Tehran, a first novel written by Mahbod Seraji, chronicling the culture of Persia and the struggle of the human existence begins with the protagonist, Pasha Shahed lying on the rooftop with his best friend, Ahmed. And despite Pasha’s guilt-ridden feelings for her, over the long, hot days their tentative friendship deepens into a richer emotional bond.īut the bliss of one perfect, stolen summer is abruptly shattered in a single night, when Pasha unwittingly acts as a beacon for the Shah’s secret police. He has fallen in love with his beautiful neighbor Zari, who has been betrothed since birth to another man.

In a middle-class neighborhood in Iran’s sprawling capital city, 17-year-old Pasha Shahed spends the summer of 1973 on his rooftop with his best friend Ahmed, dreaming about their future, asking burning questions about life, while also wrestling with a crushing secret.

For a sample of additional covers from around the world click here. John Shors, author of Beneath a Marble Sky ' Rooftops of Tehran is a richly rendered first novel about courage, sacrifice, and the bonds of friendship and love.

Rooftops of Tehran has been published in multiple languages.

Rooftops of tehran by mahbod seraji