Ruth Martin on Translating 'The Nights are quite in Tehran' (Nominated for the International Booker Prize-2026)

Ruth Martin on Translating 'The Nights are quite in Tehran' (Nominated for the International Booker Prize-2026)

From Harshaneeyam by Harshaneeyam

March 16, 2026 · 34 min · Season 5 · Episode 7

About this episode

Ruth Martin discusses her translation of 'The Nights are Quiet in Tehran', a novel longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.

Today's Guest on Harshaneeyam is Ruth Martin. Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German She has been translating fiction and non-fiction books since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Volker Weidermann and Shida Bazyar. She has taught translation at the University of Kent and the Bristol Translates summer school, and is a former co-chair of the Society of Authors Translators Association. She translated Shida Bazyar’s The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran from German to English – the novel was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026 . Set across four decades, from 1979 to 2009, this is a polyphonic novel of one family’s flight from and return to Iran. 1979. Behsad, a young communist revolutionary, fights with his friends for a new order after the Shah’s expulsion. He tells of sparking hope, of clandestine political actions, and of how he finds the love of his life in the courageous, intelligent Nahid. 1989. Nahid lives her new life in West Germany with Behsad. With their young children, they spend hour after hour in front of the radio, hoping for news from others who went into hiding after the mullahs came to power. 1999…

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