вЂњHe found their passions quaint and utterly futile. You should see the students huddled around in earnestness.вЂќ And with such a diverse cast of characters, there is a spectrum of opinions about whatвЂ™s happening, from passionate urgency to, in the case of Jamsheed, a kind of indifference: Ghaffari does a beautiful job of weaving the building tensions of the country into the idyllic orchard family gatherings, so the looming revolution surrounds the characters until itвЂ™s upon them: вЂњItвЂ™s coming to a head. The future has been written and the forthcoming events-full of violence and tragedy-will stir the family. As the political turmoil grows, so does the personal, and in this intersection the two inform one another. His nephew, Shazdenpoor, has two sons-Jamsheed is an opium addict and Madjid is in love with Nasreen, BibiвЂ™s grandniece. AkbarвЂ™s brother Habib is a mullah who professes the need for religious cleansing. Retired Judge Akbar and his wife Bibi own a fruit orchard and their extended family joins them for rich countryside lunches where they discuss whatвЂ™s happening in their country. The story then alternates between ShazdehpoorвЂ™s life in modern day Paris and his family back in Iran in 1978-79.

ItвЂ™s the day of a solar eclipse and Shazdehpoor, a lonely Iranian man, remembers his life in his home country. While on the surface Rabeah GhaffariвЂ™s To Keep the Sun Aliveis about a family amid the Iranian revolution, the novel opens in Paris in 2012.

Solar eclipse book