Set across four decades, The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran is about revolution, oppression, resistance and freedom, charting one family’s flight from and return to Iran
Ruth Martin
Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German
She has been translating fiction and non-fiction books since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Volker Weidermann and Shida Bazyar.
She has taught translation at the University of Kent and the Bristol Translates summer school, and is a former co-chair of the Society of Authors Translators Association.
She translated Shida Bazyar’s The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran from German to English – the novel was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.
Author photo © Adrian Pope
The pages of The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran pulse with solidarities and betrayal, with heartache and humour. And for all exiles, migrants, once-and-future revolutionaries, Bazyar captures what it means to always live in hope
The International Booker Prize 2026 judges on The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran
All nominated books
Tumbling down the years, great characters and greater relationships come and go, in Nino Haratischvili’s compelling epic family drama
Translated by Charlotte Collins, Ruth Martin
Set across four decades, from 1979 to 2009, this is a polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran
By Shida Bazyar
Translated by Ruth Martin
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