by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
First published 2019
Zebra stands alone in New York after her father dies. The twenty-two-year-old Iranian exile decides to retrace the path her family took when they fled their homeland in the 1990s. She travels to Barcelona, where she meets Ludo, an Italian who becomes her lover and intellectual companion. Together they wander through Catalonia as Zebra develops elaborate theories about art and literature. She wants to write a manifesto on literature, drawing from her experiences of displacement and loss. Her thoughts grow increasingly unconventional as she becomes convinced her mother has returned as a cockatoo. Zebra tells her story with wit and mischief, taking readers through her picaresque journey across landscapes both physical and mental. The novel explores how exile shapes identity and creativity, following a young woman who uses literature and storytelling to make sense of trauma and dislocation.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Barcelona, Catalonia, Iran, New York
Period: 1990s
320 pages · Paperback · Alma Books Ltd