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
Shida Bazyar
Shida Bazyar studied writing in Hildesheim, northern Germany, and worked in youth education for many years
Born in 1988, she is the author of the novels The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran and Sisters in Arms. The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran has won the Blogger Literary Award, Ulla Hahn Prize, and Uwe Johnson Prize, and has been translated into Dutch, Farsi, French, and Turkish. The English translation, by Ruth Martin, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.
Author photo supplied by Scribe UK
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
Set across four decades, from 1979 to 2009, this is a polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran
