Marsha Mehran
| Marsha Mehran | |
|---|---|
| Born |
November 11, 1977 Tehran, Iran |
| Died | April 2014 (aged 36) Lecanvey, County Mayo, Ireland |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Partner | Christopher Collins (divorced in 2013) |
| Website | |
| www |
|
Marsha Mehran born Mahsa Mehran (Persian: مارشا مهران; 11 November 1977 – April 2014) was an Iranian novelist. Her works include the international bestsellers Pomegranate Soup (2005) and Rosewater and Soda Bread (2008).
Mehran was born in Tehran on 11 November 1977, to an accountant and his wife, Shahin, a teacher. Both practiced Iran’s Bahá'í Faith, considered heretical by hardline Islam. When, a year later, the Shah’s regime began to crumble, the couple began to make plans to leave. After the storming of the American embassy in Tehran upended their plan to move to the USA, the family instead migrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1979, at the time of the Iranian Revolution. Mehran grew up in Argentina and the United States, as well as lived in Australia and Ireland.
In their new home, political upheaval, this time associated with the rule of the Argentine junta, forced the family to once more move continents. This time the family moved to America, where in Miami Marsha pursued, for a decade, her then dream of becoming a concert pianist.
Mehran's parents divorced, and in the 1990s, Mehran and her mother came to New York. Mehran told an interviewer: “I arrived in New York with only $200 in my pocket. I worked, initially, as a hostess in a restaurant owned by Russian mobsters. There were no customers there, which I thought a bit odd at first, until I realised that the restaurant was just a front for their other dealings.”
At age 17, Mehran's father reports, her permanent visa for the US was revoked for a "minor infraction". Unhappy about having to leave the US, Mehran moved to Ireland.
Mehran's debut novel, Pomegranate Soup (2005), is the story of three sisters who escape Iran at the time of the Revolution and eventually settle in a small town in the west of Ireland, where they open the Babylon Cafe. Mehran used her own family's experiences when writing the novel, which includes a number of recipes and combines "Persian cooking with Irish living."Pomegranate Soup has been translated into 15 languages to date, and published in over 20 countries worldwide.
Her second novel, Rosewater and Soda Bread (2008), is a continuation of Pomegranate Soup. It marked the second installment of a series that was cut short by her death in April 2014. The series was to run for seven books; the third, Pistachio Rain, was due for publication in 2014.
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