Then the Fish Swallowed Him by Amir Ahmadi Arian: book review

Then the Fish Swallowed Him (2020) is set in Tehran, Iran, from April 2005 to 2009.

Forty-four year old Yunus Turabi has been a bus driver for 25 years, and in 2005 he is accused of ‘acting against national security’ and detained in Evin correctional facility for political dissidents.

His mind returns to the 1979 revolution, the ousting of the Shah and the arrival of Khomeini, a year after the death of his own father. He reflects on the changing twenty-five years from freedom to repression: ‘Tehran deteriorated fast, right before my eyes.’ Even the last gardens of walnut and cherry trees are gone.

In the present time, the book is predominantly the conversations between Yunus Turabi and his personal interrogator Hajj Saeed, and the disturbing, interdependent relationship that binds them.

Saeed’s constant accusations are persistent in trying to break Turabi’s mind. Saeed goads Turabi by mentioning Turabi’s previous everyday routines: the reading group, the dalliances with his friend’s wife, and his every move—even those photographed by surveillance officers—are aggressively presented to Turabi, and every reaction is monitored. The mental torture is undeniable and relentless.

This psychological drama shows how much one person can bear, and what it takes to reach breaking point. At each stressor are the questions that haunts Yunus Turabi: shall I continue resisting the lies, should I fight, or should I submit to the endless pressure?

Well-written, interesting to the end, this novel maintains an even tone, and an enduring picture of an ordinary man caught in a web of lies and despotism.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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