PageOneLit.com "Every book begins with page one" Features interview with Maryam Tabibzadeh, author of Persian Dreams

Maryam Tabibzadeh was born In Darab, Pars in Persia (Iran) . She earned her masters degree from Shiraz University and moved to the U.S., where she attended graduate school at SUNY Binghamton. Ms. Tabibzadeh has been writing and publishing stories and poems in her native Persian for more than 20 years. She currently resides in Raleigh, NC.

Maryam has always been a source of pride and admiration due to her social progressiveness, her educational achievements in Iran as well as in the US, her professional accomplishments, and most of all in her parenthood for raising two beautiful children.

Maryam left a lasting impression when I met her closely in our home in Shiraz for the first time when I was 13. Since then, I have always admired her spirit from close and afar, and have appreciated her commitment to keeping in touch with the family.

PageOneLit.com: Tell us about "Persian Dreams."

Maryam Tabibzadeh: Like American Gone with the Wind and Russian’s War and Peace;Persian Dreams combines the sweetness of romance with the bitterness of revelation and war. This story is told from the unique perspective of a woman between lands. It shows the inward nature and inside perspectives of the people of Iran, specifically the women, leading up to and directly after the revolution of 1978. This perspective is unique because we usually get a picture of this from the outside, from the American or foreign point of view, but here we see the situation from the inside. The historic lesson is only further enhanced by the sweet romantic events of a family through three generations.

Based on mostly autobiographical events, this novel is both sweetly nostalgic and simultaneous educational. It opens the door to the inner workings of Iranians and their history, even while giving us pretty images and poetry to dance on the frames of our minds. Its uniqueness lays in this duality.



PageOneLit.com: Where did the influence come from to write this book?

Maryam Tabibzadeh: The story was always in my mind. I lived through it, I had friends that lived through this, and I often listened to my father's and grandmother generation's stories of the times that they lived through. This is the story of Iranian's last 100 years, and what it has lived through to get to where it is now. My idea was that if there was a way to record it, in the way of a story, I could reach both the younger generation of Iranians in America, and Americans themselves to educate them somehow on where we have come from and what has led up to the current situation.

Read more of this interview at www.PageOneLit.com

"A strong and powerful intimate tale of one family's greatest struggle in a time of pain for all…A timeless novel, Persian Dreams by author and poet Maryam Tabibzadeh is the superbly crafted and engaging story of three people whose lives and struggles propel them through one hundred years of history in a country of everlasting poverty, continuous political struggle, and the destructiveness of war, Persian Dreams follows the diverse character setup of Talah, a woman striving for survival after the loss of her second husband, Baback, Talah's first son whose struggle with faith and religion becomes his greatest in the midst of a growing love affair, and Baback's daughter Nosha who relentlessly aims to escape the second-class citizenship forced onto the women of her country. Persian Dreams is very highly recommended reading as a strong and powerful intimate tale of one family's greatest struggle in a time of pain for all. " James Cox Midwest Book Review