Excerpt from Aria by Nazanine Hozar, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

 

For the next two days, Mehri refused to hold the baby, even when the father, Amir, kicked at the door of Karimi's bakery downstairs. Fariba hollered at Amir from the second-floor balcony that his son was no son, but very much a girl.

Amir said, "Then bring her down so I can kill her."

"You need to name her," Fariba said, turning to Mehri. "Now."

But by the end of the day, the infant was still nameless. And Amir still sat at the door, waiting to kill the child.

"He barks at people when they walk into the bakery," Fariba said. She bounced the baby in her arms. "I had to feed her dry milk, you know. Not good for her." Fariba shifted her weight where she sat on the Persian rugs covering the floor. She gulped down the last of her gin from a tea glass. When she was finished, she slapped the glass on the rug. "There's always your brother."

"He won't help," Mehri said.

"You've always said that, but you don't know. And that boy Amir would rather kill his daughter than pay for her. Got anybody besides your brother?"

"No."

Karimi entered the room and sat beside his wife. "You still unwell, child?" he asked Mehri. His voice was kind but weary. He had known Mehri since she was thirteen, a younger friend of Fariba's, who was five years older. He could hardly bear to see her pain.

Mehri covered herself with her veil and cast down her eyes. She bit into a soft corner of the material. It hadn't been washed for weeks. Sometimes when she walked the streets she wondered if others could smell her.

Fariba unfolded her thick legs and stood up, the baby in her arms.

"Wife," Karimi said, rising as well. "Put the baby down and come here."

They whispered as they walked into the next room. Mehri could hear them—only pieces and bits, but enough.

"I can't do it," she heard Karimi say.

"Are you ready to pay their way?" Fariba said.

"This is my house. Don't you forget where your place is, woman!"

"She's my friend. I do what I want with my friends. And I know that girl. She's lying about her brother."

"The government won't do anything for a family like that," Karimi said.

"That's their people's burden, then," Fariba said. "I don't know what to tell you, husband. If it weren't for the laws—"

"Other than the laws, what do we do about him?"

"Him, we'll figure out later. I'll cut off his orange-haired head if I have to."

Excerpted from Aria by Nazanine Hozar. Copyright © 2020 by Nazanine Hozar. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.