Mistress of the Persian Boarding House
About this book
A stirring, intimate work of historical fiction inspired by the life of Marina’s paternal grandmother.Born into the glitz and glamour of upper-class Russian society at the turn of the twentieth century, Zina is a young woman yearning for love, marriage, and a family of her own. When a class war breaks out and Russia falls to the Bolsheviks, her life is shattered. Zina's first love succumbs to a Tsarist soldier's gun, and soon after, her family is executed by the new regime. Zina narrowly manages to escape Russia with her husband and adopted daughter, but once they find themselves in Tehran, tragedy strikes once again. Zina's husband is ambushed and killed in the streets for some jewels he'd gone out to sell—the last of their wealth and their only means to building a better life.Alone and impoverished, Zina has no choice but to start all over again. At a modest boarding house in Tehran, she finds herself among women from Russia and Iran—outsiders like her, seeking refuge and bound by affliction and sorrow. Within the walls of their small home, they grow closer together, supporting each other through childbirth, illnesses, a pandemic, poverty, political unrest, and threats of exile from religious zealots. What begins as a fragile alliance between the women transforms into a deep kinship, and gives Zina not only the strength to survive, but also hope for a brighter future.Amidst the turmoil, Zina's path crosses with the ambitious Reza Khan, the man who would later modernize Iran as Shah from 1925 to 1941. Their relationship becomes a welcome escape and endures decades of hardship and loss, culminating in a heart-wrenching crescendo.Told in alternating chapters between her time in Russia and later in Iran, Zina's story is one of a woman who experienced unimaginable pain and suffering, and who fought back and carved a meaningful life for herself. Sweeping, tender, and unforgettable, Mistress of the Persian Boarding House is a tale of the unbreakable bond between women who choose each other as family.