Born in Iran in 1972, Shokoofeh Azar was the first Iranian woman to hitchhike the entire length of the Silk Road. She worked as a journalist and field reporter in Iran, covering human rights issues. After several arrests in connection with her work as a journalist, on advice from her family she fled Iran in 2010 and was granted asylum in Australia, where she has lived as a political refugee since 2011. Her first novel, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize for Fiction and the International Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN America Award and the National Book Award for Translated Literature.

“This novel is packed with ghosts, magical palaces, fortune tellers and folk stories; it could be described as magical realism, though Azar writes with a flair that sets her apart from the South American giants that have dominated the genre.”

Born in Iran in 1972, Shokoofeh Azar was the first Iranian woman to hitchhike the entire length of the Silk Road. She worked as a journalist and field reporter in Iran, covering human rights issues. After several arrests in connection with her work as a journalist, on advice from her family she fled Iran in 2010 and was granted asylum in Australia, where she has lived as a political refugee since 2011. Her first novel, The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree, was shortlisted for the Stella Prize for Fiction and the International Booker Prize, and was a finalist for the PEN America Award and the National Book Award for Translated Literature.

“This novel is packed with ghosts, magical palaces, fortune tellers and folk stories; it could be described as magical realism, though Azar writes with a flair that sets her apart from the South American giants that have dominated the genre.”