Shirin

Shirin by Taqi Bakhtyari (Palaver 2026) moves between Afghanistan and suburban Sydney. The (graphic) novel follows a Hazara refugee living under her father’s control in Merrylands as she navigates one decisive year from a childhood marked by the imposition of silence to a young womanhood of intense personal and social upheavals and possibilities.

The novel’s protagonist, ‘Aghai’, has a goal to memorialise her friend Shirin by going back to Afghanistan to inscribe Shirin’s name on an otherwise anonymous tombstone.

With stark images the novel bears witness to massacre and expulsion from home and the enduring trauma carried by refugees even after they reach places of supposed safety. ‘Aghai’ finds strength and support in her own inner resources, in the wisdom of poet Omar Khayyam and in her bond with Kylie, a new friend who reflects both the present of Australia, its imperfect multiculturalism and the echoes of a traumatic past.