My first encounter with Nava Ebrahimi´s writing took place almost three years ago and I was charmed by her storytelling. I was pleased to continue my journey through her world, with the much shortter Das Paradies Meines Nachbarn (My Neighbour´s Paradise, in my free personal translation).
From certain respects, the story is more focused clear, but it also has a sense of unfinished ending which is unsatisfactory.
The main inspiration of the story is the fate of children soldiers used by Iran during the decade-long war with Iraq. Ali Najjar is a successful architect and designer who just took over a fancy architecture studio in München. An aggressive businessman, he arrived in Germany at the age of 14, one of those self-made men whose stories we are happy to read and be inspired by. But his professional trajectory was the result of an accident of circumstances. A letter wroten by his mother time after her death may shed some light and emotion into an incomplete destiny.
Ali Najjar is a very clear and strong character. However, another Persian character, Sina, who works in the same company, at a lower level - both professionally and motivationally - is less articulated and in any case the weak chain of the story, including in relation with his Persian identity.
I really enjoyed the story and the intersection between (geo)political and personal considerations, although I was expecting a little bit more from the story itself and the ending, for sure, didn´t satisfy my expectations. Tehran-born, Austria-based Nava Ebrahimi remains nevertheless a great storytelling voice of Iranian immigration in the German-speaking realm.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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