"The Pomegranate Lady and her Sons" Tuesday night at Aloud at the Central Library

Goli Taraghi, the author of "The Pomegranate Lady and her Sons" was interviewed at the Aloud program on Tuesday night by Reza Aslan a professor at U.C. Riverside and author of "Zealot."  Both authors are natives of Iran and Aslan referred to the great number of Iranians living in Los Angeles so that they sometimes refer to the city as Terangeles...many were former residents of Terran, the capitol of Iran.

Goli Taraghi left Iran shortly after the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 because a loss of property and freedoms.  She grew up in the upper class of Terran and so they family lost most of their property and wealth.  However, her brother remained and they were able to keep their main house.  She fled to Paris were she has lived for 34 years although she publishes in Iran...even with the censors.

Taraghi said that exile is a terrible thing...like a river...just swim in it and make the best.  She does not publish in France and does not refer to it as home...her home is Iran.  However she is censored in Iran...it inhibits her expression of thought.  Although women are suppress in Iran, they make up the majority of college students and writers.  They are very modern in many ways such as working in jobs.

Her book of stories "The Pomegranate Lady..." is about life in Iran when she was growing up in the 1940's through the 1970's.  She referred to the Pomegranate as a beautiful rich red fruit and when you open, it oozes with rich red seeds.