33 Bridge and Tea House

Author's name: Mehrnoush Zarei Esfahani Publisher: Mamdouh Adnan House Number of pages: 138 In her childhood, Mehrnoush and her siblings lived a luxurious and happy life, and her family's happiness was complete with the departure of the Shah, whom her parents fought against. However, the subsequent political changes and the conscription of children in the Iran-Iraq war drove her parents to flee Iran to protect their children. In 1986, the nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred, and it turned the nearby city of Pripyat into a ghost town abandoned by its residents. But this event, which ignited international concern and popular solidarity around the world, was just a passing news on television to Mehrnoush as a child, who and her family immediately obtained their new home after the bitter refugee journey. After about thirty years, Mehrnoush tells her story, comparing the two most important events in her childhood: the general anxiety over the nuclear disaster that caused thousands to lose their homeland, and the epic journey her family undertook: fleeing from Isfahan, periods of despair in Turkey, getting lost in East Germany, until they reached their new homeland in West Germany; where a new window on life was opened for her, as if millions of colorful butterflies had entered through it.