Scribe is thrilled to announce that The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran by Shida Bazyar, translated by Ruth Martin, has been shortlisted for The International Booker Prize 2026, and is one of six books to make the shortlist.
31 March, 2026
The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran is Shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026
‘With narratives that capture moments from across the past century, these books reverberate with history. While there’s heartbreak, brutality and isolation among these stories, their lasting effect is energising.’ Natasha Brown, Chair of the 2026 judging panel
The winner will be announced at a ceremony in London on Tuesday, 19 May.
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The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran
A captivating, 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. Laleh returns to Iran with her mother, Nahid. Between beauty rituals and family secrets, she gets to know a Tehran that hardly matches her childhood memories.
2009. Laleh’s brother Mo is more concerned with a friend’s heartbreak than with student demonstrations in Germany. But then the Green Revolution breaks out in Iran and turns the world upside down …
A topical, moving novel about revolution, oppression, resistance, and the absolute desire for freedom.
Shida Bazyar
Shida Bazyar, born in 1988, studied writing in Hildesheim, and, in addition to writing, worked in youth education for many years. She is the author of The Nights Are Quiet in Tehran—which has won the Blogger Literary Award, Ulla Hahn Prize, and Uwe Johnson Prize, among others, and has been translated into Dutch, Farsi, French, and Turkish—and Sisters in Arms.
Ruth Martin
Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. She has been translating fiction and nonfiction 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.
