Then the Fish Swallowed Him

A Novel

De: Amir Ahmadi Arian

Narrado por: Fajer Al-Kaisi

An critically-acclaimed Iranian author makes his American literary debut with this powerful and harrowing psychological portrait of modern Iran - an unprecedented and urgent work of fiction with echoes of The Stranger, 1984, and The Orphan Master’s Son - that exposes the oppressive and corrosive power of the state to bend individual lives.

Yunus Turabi, a bus driver in Tehran, leads an unremarkable life. A solitary man since the unexpected deaths of his father and mother years ago, he is decidedly apolitical - even during the driver’s strike and its bloody end. But everyone has their breaking point, and Yunus has reached his.

Handcuffed and blindfolded, he is taken to the infamous Evin prison for political dissidents. Inside this stark, strangely ordered world, his fate becomes entwined with Hajj Saeed, his personal interrogator. The two develop a disturbing yet interdependent relationship, with each playing his assigned role in a high stakes psychological game of cat and mouse, where Yunus endures a mind-bending cycle of solitary confinement and interrogation. In their startlingly intimate exchanges, Yunus’s life begins to unfold - from his childhood memories growing up in a freer Iran to his heartbreaking betrayal of his only friend. As Yunus struggles to hold on to his sanity and evade Saeed’s increasingly undeniable accusations, he must eventually make an impossible choice: continue fighting or submit to the system of lies upholding Iran’s power.

Gripping, startling, and masterfully told, Then the Fish Swallowed Him is a haunting story of life under despotism.

©2020 Amir Ahmadi Arian (P)2020 HarperAudio

Amazing book

Deep understanding of a complex character and situation. Bravo to this writer. Book gets better as it moves forward. Writing at the beginning is full of cliches. Then the writer hits his stride…and the book takes off….

Powerful

With hints of Persian poetry, and counterbalanced with modern imagery, this book pulled me in. Not for the faint of heart. I loved it and felt narration was perfect.

The Wrong Man

An alienated bus driver in Teheran, caught up in a union protest, goes to prison. That’s the backbone of this fascinating novel, which explores the character’s personal and economic struggles in early 21st century Iran. Yunus, the bus driver, accepts with indifference the invitations of fellow drivers to a study group and later to a demonstration, until he finds himself arrested for political crimes. The prison scenes are strong, especially his interrogation by an apparently thoughtful but brutal man. Yunus’ passivity and fatalism reminded me of Meursault, the main character in Camus’ “The Stranger.” The narration was excellent. I recommend this novel to those who follow Mideast affairs and to those who like serious, provocative fiction.