Book

Man of my time / Dalia Sofer.

ISBN: 9780374110062
Physical Description: 372 pages ; 22 cm
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020.
Copyright: &copy;2020.

Sofer, Dalia, 1972- (author.).

Summary:

Set in Iran and New York City, The Beginning of My Downfall tells the story of Hamid Mozaffarian, who is as alienated from himself as he is from the world around him. After decades of ambivalent work as an interrogator with the Iranian regime, Hamid travels on a diplomatic mission to New York, where he encounters his estranged family and retrieves the ashes of his father, whose dying wish was to be buried in Iran. Tucked in his pocket throughout the trip, the ashes propel him into a excavation -- full of mordant wit and bitter memory -- of his lifetime of betrayal, and prompt him to trace his own evolution from a perceptive boy in love with marbles to a man who, on seeing his own reflection, is startled to encounter "an exquisite, indignant creature". As he reconnects with his brother and others living in exile, Hamid is forced to reckon with his past, with the insidious nature of violence, and with his entrenchment in a system that for decades ensnared him.