Review: Half a Cup of Sand and Sky

Nadine Bjursten, Half a Cup of Sand and Sky, (Alder House Books 2023)

Amineh meets up with her friend Ava for a picnic in a Tehran park. Nearby, some students are protesting against the shah, and they can hear the police sirens approaching. One of their friends Tahmures has been murdered by the state. Soon, they, too, would have to risk everything for the freedom they desired. Some look to Ayatollah Khomeini for leadership; others, like Tahmures, to the politics of Karl Marx.

She meets Farzad, older than her but respected, at a memorial for Tahmures, and Ava likes his friend Dariush.
Five years earlier, her grandmother had died, and her cousin Qasem had taken over the family rose farm in Qamsar, but there was no life for her there, now. Amineh is writing a novel about her parents, yet she hardly remembers them—they died when she was eight—and everyone around her wants her to make it political.

See the full review on Goodreads.