November book of the month

A Kurdish boy, Reza, is orphaned at the age of ten after a battle between the Kurds and the Shah of Iran's military forces in the early 1900's. The policy at this time is to conscript the male orphans in to the Shah's army, so Reza trades his old life and becomes Iranian, after witnessing the brutal death of all of this male relatives, including his father who is kicked to death in front of him. Though Reza is the main character, his life unfolds through a series of storytellers, each with their own view point. The Age of Orphans unleashes a tapestry of untold horrors and pleasures, of blood and smoke, hopes and dreams. This is a profoundly moving story of a land sewn together under the ambitious imagining of a nation, and of the life of a boy whose identity does not and can not unite with this vision. This is the first of a trilogy and the debut by a skillful writer.