A Love in Cairo

When the Iranian ambassador in Egypt enters into service in 1947, he has to solve two tasks: To persuade Fausia, the sister of the Egyptian king, to return to Iran, where she has been married to Shah Reza Pahlevi since 1939. She has fled the unhappy marriage back to her homeland. And he has to transfer the body of Shah Reza's father, who died in South Africa, to Iran.

While trying to fulfil these orders, he falls in love with Sakineh, the wife of an Indian philosophy professor in the Egyptian metropolis. Cairo's atmosphere and mood, between backwardness and modernity, threat and awakening in those years, is beautifully captured in Cheheltan's new novel. While we read about a love affair whose fate is closely linked to the ambassador's success or failure, we are provided, subtly, with a careful historical grounding, in a language rich in detail, with the image of an era and region that still today suffers from the same tensions. The author draws portraits of strong, unexpectedly powerful women. Sensual and clever, funny and sophisticated.