The Age Of Orphans, By Laleh Khadivi

A young boy's carefree existence in the Zagros mountains is brought to a shattering end after he witnesses his father's ignominous death during a battle between Kurdish tribesmen and the new Iranian army.

The moment marks the end of one life and necessary acquisition of another; in his loveless, orphaned state, the boy is renamed Reza by the Iranian army whom he now serves.

His journey into manhood - from a military career to his marriage to an Iranian bookseller's daughter - dramatises a desperate quest for belonging, set against a turbulent period of Kurdish and Persian history from the 1920s to pre-Revolutionary Iran.

While it is unremittingly bleak, it is also rich with lyricism and sensuality, even in its most brutal moments.