A HUNDRED SWEET PROMISES

An ambitious Persian composer falls illicitly in love with the Russian princess he tutors in this novel based on a true story.

Nasrollah Minbashian travels from Tehran, the city of his birth, to Russia with his father, Salar Moazaz, to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory under the direction of renowned composer Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov. Nasrollah remains there for seven years, falls deeply in love with the city and its cosmopolitan culture, and regrets leaving when the time comes. Back at home, Nasrollah flourishes as a musician in Tehran and is appointed the director of a military band. The Persian king bestows on him the honorary title Nasrosoltan. Still, he pines to return to St. Petersburg and become a daring composer like Stravinsky, though his “domineering father” wants him to settle down and start a family. Nasrollah finally returns to Russia but gambles his way into dire financial straits, and he’s compelled to take a job as piano tutor to Princess Irina Alexandrovna, the czar’s niece. Nasrollah is unhappy with the assignment, but he eventually falls for Irina while realizing that their love is almost certainly doomed. Staying in St. Petersburg would be the fulfillment of a dream and probably torpedo his career. “You know it was always my dream to live and compose in this great city. But I now realize I will remain a nobody if I stay here, just a piano tutor to some. Even though I believe I am a worthy composer, there are hundreds of composers in this city who cannot make a living through their work.”

Haddad bases the novel on his own grandfather of the same name, relating a story he was told while in Tehran in 1978 in advance of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. He astutely sets the drama of Nasrollah’s love affair against both the tumult of his time and his grandfather’s time; in the early 20th century, both Russia and Tehran were experiencing profound political discontent as calls for reform became increasingly urgent. Nasrollah is an enticingly complex character—musically gifted and deeply ambitious, even haughty, he learns a remarkable humility from the experience of lost love. In florid terms that flirt with melodrama, Haddad depicts his anguish: “Nasrosoltan’s whole being felt pained, knowing full well there was no remedy: the pain that seems it will never depart the body, which is ever-present and relentless, like a thief, robbing the victim of sleep, appetite, and any joy or purpose.” The novel, despite its brevity, unfolds far too slowly, and the prose ranges from unspectacular to overwrought. However, this remains an exceedingly intelligent tale that thoughtfully juxtaposes the maddening effects of romantic love with the violent paroxysms of political insurrection. Furthermore, the reader is given a rare literary treat: a peek into distinct revolutionary periods—Russia and Iran in the early years of the 20th century and Iran in the century’s last quarter.

A dramatically affecting novel that is also politically astute.