Goodreads Monday is a weekly meme started by @Lauren’s Page Turners but is currently hosted by Emily @ Budget Tales Book Blog. This meme is quite easy to follow – just randomly pick a book from your to-be-read list and explain why you want to read it. It is that simple.

This week’s book:

The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar

Blurb from Goodreads

A captivating, polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran.

Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah’s expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid.

1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power.

1999. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories.

2009. Laleh’s brother Mo is more concerned with a friend’s heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down …

A topical, moving novel about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom.

Why I Want To Read It

Happy Monday, everyone! Just like that, we are two-thirds through the fourth month of the year. How time flies! As always, time takes its natural course, ever flowing forward, sans regard for any of us. It does not wait for anyone. As such, I hope the year is going—and will continue to go—well for everyone. I hope the year will be kind to you all. Things are still erratic, whether at work or geopolitics. I sure hope the tension in the Middle East will start to de-escalate. I hope that peace will gradually be restored. Meanwhile, here in the Philippines, the stifling summer heat is making its presence felt. It is getting more heated and intense. Anyway, I hope everyone has had a good start to the workweek. I hope everyone is in a place of comfort. The new week beckons with hope and fresh starts. I hope it flows in everyone’s favor. Wishing you continued success and happiness.

I know—not many people get excited about Mondays (though I’m sure a few are out there). I, too, am not exactly a fan. I hope that as the week moves forward, you slowly gain a semblance of momentum. I hope that everyone’s workweek will go smoothly. More importantly, I hope everyone is doing well—mentally, emotionally, and physically. After spending the first two months of the year reading works of Latin American and Caribbean writers, I commenced a journey across the European continent in March. It took me some time to decide where to land next, but in the end, I chose to read European writers, since most of the books on my 2026 reading challenge list are by European authors. I have extended this journey to April because I still have several European literary works on my reading challenges.

For this week’s Goodreads Monday update, I am featuring yet another book I first encountered through this year’s International Booker Prize. Shida Bazyar’s The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran is among the thirteen books longlisted for the prestigious prize. It is also among the first books that piqued my interest; this came before tensions escalated in the Middle East. Besides, my exposure to Iranian literature is rather limited. However, the few I have read made me look forward to exploring Iranian/Persian literature more. The last work by an Iranian writer I read was Disoriental by Négar Djavadi. Somehow, these two books share more similarities than meets the eye. They were both written by the Iranian diaspora. Disoriental was written in French, while The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran was written in German. I have also read Shahrnush Parsipur’s Women Without Men during the pandemic; I was surprised when it was also longlisted for the 2026 International Booker Prize.

Anyway, The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran was originally published in 2016 as Nachts ist es leise in Teheran. Like the other books mentioned in this post, it was also highly heralded, earning various accolades. The novel is a multi-generational story of an Iranian family navigating revolution, exile, and return. These are recurring themes amongst works of Iranian diaspora writers, particularly the women. In fact, Parsipur has been in exile for decades. It is due to this that I am looking forward to The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran. Besides, Iran as a country has long fascinated me; it is one of the countries that is high on my travel bucket list. For now, I have to secure a copy of the book and hopefully read it before the winner of the International Booker Prize is announced. How about you, fellow readers? How was your Monday? What books have you recently added to your reading list? Drop your thoughts in the comments. For now—happy Monday, and as always, happy reading!