I fell a little bit in love with Nioosha Shams at Stockholms Litteraturmässan two years ago in a panel discussion on the phenomenology of reading. I added her only book to my TBR, one of the more recently published books to end up there.
I’m still in love with Shams, but Om det regnar i Ahvaz is not for me. The premise is simple: the first teenage heartache, pasted over that most exciting of times, graduation. And yes, since we’re talking about teenagers, this is squarely within Young Adult territory. Just to pick up a copy, I had to creep in to the Youths TM section of the library like an interloper, past the sternly-worded Official Rules explaining that in order to keep the space friendly for the Youths TM, no one over 25 was allowed to sit and linger in this space. Not an auspicious start, perhaps!
Since I’m an old, and not particularly romantic, the drama doesn’t hit the same. Our protagonist Ava falls in love with the (only slightly) older, glamorous Nadja, a summer love that unravels over the course of the book. Ava also has her two obligatory Teenage Shenanigan Besties, with whom she shares a rather wholesome and aspirational bond, and her younger brother who has been ensnared by a different glamor: gang life. This last point takes up the intermittent B plot, which I would have liked to see feature more prominently (or just have its own book?), I guess because I find stories about navigating familial relationships more interesting than romance.
But if I were a queer teenager, this would have no doubt been fun escapism. The story wasn’t for me, but Shams has a fantastic way with words and populates the book with fun and relatable (if highly idealized) characters.
