The Age of Orphans

“Khadivi…has a lyrical style reminiscent of…Michael Ondaatje…The Age of Orphans evocatively captures the desperate longing for home, family and a life erased. It’s an affecting tale.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer Orphaned in a massacre on his Kurdish village, Reza Khourdi is adopted by the assailants and conscripted into the army of Iran. Reza is promoted to the rank of captain, marries an educated Tehrani woman, and slowly forgets the brutality of his past. But when he is deployed back to the mountains of his youth to suppress the nationalist uprisings of the still defiant Kurds, the life he has built for himself begins to crumble. The Age of Orphans is a literary debut of unmistakable power.