The Drum Tower

The Drum Tower is Farnoosh Moshiri's fourth work of fiction concerned with the deleterious effects of the Iranian revolution of 1979. This novel, narrated by a mentally ill, 16-year-old girl, depicts the fall of Drum Tower, the house of an Iranian family descended from generations of War Ministers. Rich in characters—Talkhoon, who struggles to control the winds she hears inside her head; Assad, a man made evil by his love for her; Anvar, who has devoted his life to writing a book about the Simorgh (the Persian Phoenix, the bird of knowledge) but never completes it; Soraya, Talkhoon's mother, whom we never meet but about whom myriad and contradictory stories abound—and rich in family secrets, this book chronicles the early days of the revolution, the ruthlessness and opportunism of the competing factions, the chaos and murder in the streets, the arrests and executions, as experienced by the members of this family. The Drum Tower may be compared, favorably, to Gone with the Wind.

Farnoosh Moshiri Farnoosh Moshiri was born into a literary family in Tehran. She was playwright in Tehran when the 1979 revolution broke out. When the authorities brought together Tehran's playwrights, actors, and others connected with the theater and demanded they agree to write and produce only plays the authorities approved of, Moshiri refused. Eventually she was able to make her way to the U.S. She has won several awards for her fiction, including a Barthelme Fellowship and two Barbara Deming awards.