The Year of Turmoil : A Novel by Abbas Maroufi: Translated From the Persian by Nastaran Kherad

The Year of Turmoil (Sâl-e Balvâ) by Abbas Maroufi is a major work of modern Persian fiction that explores the intersection of personal suffering and national crisis in Iran during the 1930s and 1940s. Set in the final years of Reza Shah’s reign and the Allied occupation, the novel follows Noushafarin, the daughter of a military officer who moves to the provincial town of Sangsar in search of stability, only to become trapped in an oppressive marriage to Dr. Masoum, a manipulative physician emblematic of patriarchal authority and moral corruption.
Told through a fluid, stream-of-consciousness narrative, the novel moves between memory and imagination, reflecting Noushafarin’s inner fragmentation. Her recollections of Hosseina, a humble potter and lost love, draw on Persian myth to evoke themes of sacrifice, resistance, and collective trauma. As famine, war, and political upheaval devastate the country, Noushafarin’s story becomes a microcosm of Iran’s broader suffering, including the catastrophic famine of 1942–43.
Blending history, myth, and elements of magic realism, The Year of Turmoil examines gender, power, and historical memory, revealing how women’s voices are silenced in times of crisis while suggesting that remembrance and storytelling offer endurance and renewal. Written in lyrical yet restrained prose, the novel is a powerful meditation on loss, resilience, and the struggle for dignity under oppression.

About the Translator:
Dr. Nastaran Kherad received her PhD in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Persian language and literature, gendered narratives, regionalism and migration.