Pomegranate Sky

Winner of the Virginia Prize for Fiction in 2009. Beneath the polished surface of upper-class Iranian life, lies trouble, fear and dark secrets. Living in post-revolutionary Tehran, Layla refuses to bow to the ayatollahs' rules, while resisting her mother's relentless attempts to find her a suitable husband. Instead, she embarks on an illicit affair with her art teacher, Keyvan, and they tentatively imagine a future together. But the sudden death of her uncle, an outspoken journalist, raises many unanswered questions, and when Layla's cousin, who is visiting from America, is arrested, Layla's plans for the future begin to unravel...