Then the Fish Swallowed Him: A Novel

An unprecedented exposé of life in modern day Iran and a universal and timeless story of totalitarianism that is a 1984 for the twenty-first century.“Not-to-be-missed. . . . A sharply-observed, painfully intimate, and illuminating vision of Iran.”—Joyce Carol Oates

Yunus Turabi, a bus driver in Tehran, leads an almost invisible life. A solitary man since the unexpected deaths of his father and mother years ago, he is decidedly apolitical—even during the transportation union’s strike and its bloody end. But everyone has their breaking point, and Yunus has reached his. Handcuffed and blindfolded, Yunus arrives at Evin, the infamous political prison. Inside this stark ordered world, he meets Hajj Saeed, his personal interrogator. Hajj Saeed and Yunus develop a disturbing yet interdependent relationship, where both men play their roles in a high-stakes psychological cat-and-mouse game. Hajj Saeed controls Yunus’ life with unflinching purpose, sending him on a mind-bending cycle of solitary confinement and interrogation. Through these startlingly intimate moments, Yunus’s life begins to take shape—from his childhood memories growing up in a freer Iran to his heartbreaking betrayal of his only friend. As Yunus struggles to stay a step ahead of Hajj Saeed’s increasingly undeniable accusations, he must decide to keep on fighting or submit to the system of lies that upholds Iran’s power.