Tehran, City without Heaven

In this novel, Amir Hassan Cheheltan tells a story about the life of Kerâmat. He is handsome, brave and brutal. At ten, he runs away from home, goes to Tehran and sells his body. On the eve of the Islamic Revolution, he joins a gang that runs brothels and cracks down on disagreeable political gatherings. He capitalises on the war between Iran and Iraq by organising a black market in medicine and food. As a reward for crushing opposition groups, Kerâmat is given the post of director in a notorious prison for political prisoners after the revolution. Although Kerâmat is a contradictory figure, Amir Hassan Cheheltan makes him the hero of the new book. The contradictions of today's Iran crystallise in this figure, of which the author expresses in a poetic and touching language. This novel has already been published in German and Arabic translation and is published for the first time uncensored in the unabridged version in original Persian.