{"id":77222,"date":"2025-01-16T08:42:29","date_gmt":"2025-01-16T13:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/?p=77222"},"modified":"2025-01-16T08:42:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T13:42:29","slug":"book-feature-half-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-half-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Feature:<\/strong> Half the World<\/em>"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leissa Shahrak, Author<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Asheville author Leissa Shahrak chose Iran of the late 1970s, the time of the Iranian Revolution, as the setting for her debut novel, Half the World<\/em>. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that readers understand that today\u2019s Iran, the Iran they hear about on the news, is quite different,\u201d she says. \u201cOf course, some readers will remember the Iranian Revolution, but most of today\u2019s readers are too young to have experienced the television and newspaper coverage of what happened then. And, few were actually there, as I was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The narrative centers around three characters: an American couple and an Iranian student. They are living in Esfahan, Iran in 1977-1979, where the author lived during the same time period. \u201cThe novel portrays the arduous challenges of living under a despotic ruler who excels in fear-mongering, manipulation of the truth and degeneration of trust to feed his megalomania and remain in power,\u201d Shahrak says.<\/p>\n

She hopes that her book helps readers understand the role America played in Iranian politics decades ago and also imparts a bit of knowledge about traditional Persian culture: \u201cthe expectations of ta\u2019arof<\/em>, loosely translated as \u2018politeness,\u2019\u201d she says, \u201cor the way one hails a taxi, for example. These practices have no real equivalent in Western culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Half the World, September, 2024, fiction, hardback $25.99, paperback, $16.99, Kindle $9.99, by Leissa Shahrack, and published by Atmosphere Press, Austin, TX. Order the book and learn more about the author at LeissaShahrak.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Asheville author Leissa Shahrak chose Iran of the late 1970s, the time of the Iranian Revolution, as the setting for her debut novel, Half the World. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that readers understand that today\u2019s Iran, the Iran they hear about on the news, is quite different,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":77224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-literature"],"yoast_head":"\nBook Feature: Half the World - The Laurel of Asheville<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Asheville author Leissa Shahrak chose Iran of the late 1970s, the time of the Iranian Revolution, as the setting for her debut novel, Half the World. \u201cI think it\u2019s important that readers understand that today\u2019s Iran, the Iran they hear about on the news, is quite different,\u201d she says.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thelaurelofasheville.com\/updatestage\/arts\/book-feature-half-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Book Feature: Half the World - 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