Song of a Captive Bird: A Novel

A spellbinding debut novel based on the life of the rebel poet Forugh Farrokhzad, who defied Iranian society to find her voice, and love-inspiring generations of women to come.

Although she is told that daughters should be quiet and modest, young Forugh finds ways to rebel-gossiping with her sister in the rose garden, composing poems behind the closed doors of her bedroom, sneaking out with a teenage paramour to discuss books over a cafe glace. As a young woman in the 1950s, Forugh flees her forced marriage, returns to Tehran, and falls into a passionate affair. When her newfound freedom finds its voice on the page, her published poems-considered brilliant and utterly scandalous-polarize Iranian society. Unwilling to return to a traditional, expected life, Forugh continues to live by her own rules, finding love and success-but at enormous cost.

This haunting novel-informed by Forugh’s writings, films, and interviews-captures the tenacity, spirit, and conflicting desires of a rebel poet who, to this day, continues to inspire women around the world.

Story Locale- Tehran, Iran in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s