Marina Nemat established a reputation as a memoirist and public speaker who wrote Prisoner of Tehran (2007) and After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed (2010). Her account of imprisonment and torture in the notorious Evin prison offers insight into oppression of dissidents in revolutionary Iran. Nemat settled in Canada in 1991 and now lives in Ontario.
Fiction
Mistress of the Persian Boarding House
Toronto: Viking, 2026.
forthcoming July 2026
Publisher’s Synopsis (From its website)
A stirring, intimate novel inspired by the life of Marina’s paternal grandmother.
Born into the elegant comfort of upper-class Russian society at the turn of the twentieth century, Zina yearns for independence and a life she can call her own. After the Bolsheviks topple the Czarist government, she narrowly escapes with her husband and adopted daughter. But once they arrive in Tehran, tragedy strikes again, and she finds herself alone and impoverished.
At a modest boarding house, Zina must start over. There she meets women from Russia and Iran—outsiders like her, seeking refuge. They support one another through childbirth, illness, political unrest, and a pandemic. Amid the turmoil, Zina’s path crosses that of the ambitious Reza Khan, future shah of Iran. Their relationship becomes a welcome escape, enduring decades of hardship and sorrow before culminating in a heart-wrenching climax.
Links
Publisher Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House