Only This Beautiful Moment

Starred review from May 15, 2023
Nazemian (The Chandler Legacies) combines myriad interconnected narratives spanning three generations of an Iranian family in this ambitious read. In 2019, 17-year-old Mahmoud Jafarzadeh, who is queer, is visiting Tehran from Los Angeles for the first time to spend time with grandfather Baba, who is terminally ill. When Moud confides his complicated feelings about his family and culture to his white boyfriend Shane, he claims that Moud is “defending a regime that wants you dead.” In a 1978-set plotline occurring during the Iranian Revolution, 18-year-old student activist Saeed, Moud’s father, falls for Shirin, a fellow protestor. But Saeed’s parents, fearful for his life, send him to America to complete his education away from the tumult. And in 1939 Hollywood, Moud’s Baba, 17-year-old Bobby, yearns to tell his Mexican American best friend Vicente that he loves him. The day he plucks up the courage, Bobby’s overbearing stage mother sweeps him away for a once-in-a-lifetime film opportunity that drastically changes the course of his life. Via the trio’s intimately realized alternating perspectives, Nazemian paints a transcendent and complex portrait of generational grief and self-discovery, expertly interweaving the boys’ individual experiences with homophobia, racism, and U.S.-Iranian relations to deliver a touching family drama. Ages 13–up.

Starred review from May 1, 2023
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* When Moud flies from Los Angeles to Tehran to visit his dying grandfather, it's a welcome reprieve from his pop-culture-saturated day-to-day. Unfortunately, he's traveling with his father, Saeed, with whom he shares a strained relationship stemming from the death of Moud's mother and Moud coming out as gay. He has always taken his father's coldness as a culturally derived prejudice, which he expects to see reflected in Iran. The truth reveals itself to be far more muddled as Moud explores the secret underground enjoyed by Tehran's gay youth and is shocked to learn how his grandfather's own homosexuality has shaped the fates of his father and himself. This story, told in three points of view from three generations of the same family, is nothing short of masterful. Moud and his family are multifaceted and exquisitely crafted, and the setting of Tehran is suffused with sumptuous food, dance, and poetry. The subject of prejudice against LGBTQ+ people in both America and Iran is woven into all three characters' stories, but Nazemian takes pains to highlight the courage borne by individuals in the face of oppressive regimes, holding them up as exemplars. This is the kind of story that young-adult literature is made for: a story of the heart, of the very real human struggles young people face and that adults try to--but never truly--forget.

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Starred review from April 1, 2023
A textured novel that uncovers secrets spanning three generations of an Iranian family. It's 2019. Seventeen-year-old Moud Jafarzadeh is removing all traces of gayness from his social media before he leaves Los Angeles for Tehran. He'll be visiting Iran with his dad, Saeed, to spend time with Baba, his terminally ill grandfather. As they're visiting a country where gay people are confronted with violence or worse, this trip is a source of conflict between Moud and Shane, his White boyfriend. The perspective then shifts to that of 18-year-old Saeed Jafarzadeh in 1978, during the Iranian revolution. He's going to a student protest, a risky activity he conceals from his parents. It's there Saeed meets and starts to fall for beautiful Shirin, a fellow protester. The novel then flashes back to 1939. In Los Angeles, 17-year-old Babak "Bobby" Jafarzadeh, Moud's grandfather, desperately wants to tell Vicente, his Mexican American best friend, that he loves him. Today was supposed to be the day--until Mother picked Bobby up from school and whisked him away for a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer screen test, his ticket to becoming a movie star and fulfilling her own disappointed dreams. The Jafarzadeh men's narratives alternate, intriguingly unveiling family secrets. Nazemian expertly bridges the past and the present, exploring racism, homophobia, and relations between the United States and Iran along the way. His elegant prose propels this historically resonant and culturally nuanced family drama. A stunning intergenerational coming-of-age story. (author's note) (Fiction. 14-18)

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August 18, 2023

Gr 9 Up-This complex book spans three generations and 80 years of an Iranian family whose story is told in three voices and lengthy chapters. Moud-whose story is told in the year 2019, initially in Los Angeles-is a gay Iranian American teenager who has a boyfriend. His mother is dead, his father quiet and withdrawn, and he is afraid to tell his father about his sexuality. Moud's father Saeed's story takes place in 1978 where his participation in a demonstration in Tehran puts his life in danger, so his father sends him to Los Angeles to live with a grandmother he has never met. The third voice, that of Bobby in LA in 1939, gives the backstory of what it was like to be gay then, and of his mentoring Saeed's father, and Moud's Iranian grandfather, in accepting his sexuality. The grandfather, Baba, and the issues of being gay during dangerous times, are the links that join the three narratives. When Moud travels with his father to Tehran because Baba is ill and dying, the interconnection of family and their individual stories becomes evident. The book paints an informative and interesting picture of a family, of acceptance, and of taking chances when being who you are is dangerous. The four main characters (because Baba must be included, even though he is not a narrator) are well drawn, compelling, and strong. VERDICT While probably more appealing to older teens and new adults because of the ages of the characters, the strength of the writing warrants this book a strong recommendation.-Janet Hilbun

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