Cindy Davies

The Revolutionary’s Cousin

Freedom flows for Zahra, but suddenly it’s ebbing.

Zahra Ghafoori, an Afghan widow with a troubled past, plans to leave Tehran with her fiancé, wealthy architect Karim Konari, and her son Ahmad. Living through the post-revolutionary challenges in 1979 Iran, Zahra is anxious to settle with them in America. The dramatic reappearance of her revolutionary cousin Firzun, whom she believed dead in a bomb blast, changes everything. My second novel The Revolutionary’s Cousin continues the story of Karim, Zahra and Firzun the main protagonists in The Afghan Wife, as they escape from Iran and settle in both the USA and Australia.

I’ve also written a short piece about how Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre influenced some of the incidents in The Revolutionary’s Cousin. You can read this in my blog post: The Jane Eyre connection.

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Zahra’s Story

Zahra’s destiny has always been tied up with her cousin, Firzun. Now she and her son Ahmad are forced to leave Iran.

Tower of silence, Yazd

Sunset at the Tower of Silence, Yazd, Iran

A typical street scene

Mosque with courtyard

Street scene with a cleric on a motorbike

Small town bakery in Iran

Tehran Airport

She has to start a new life in Australia. She and Ahmad are taken to a migrant hostel 70km from Sydney. But Firzun insists she meets him at the Sydney Opera House. Zahra has to catch a train from Wollongong and nearly misses it.

The former Fairy Meadow migrant hostel is very dilapidated and due for demolition as you’ll see from the photographs. It closed in 1981 and was absorbed into the University of Wollongong.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sign at Fairy Meadow Station

Hostel meeting room

Hostel units

Zahra’s new home

Former Fairy Meadow Migrant hostel

The path to the dining room

Servery in the dining room

Hostel dining room

Level crossing at the Fairy Meadow Station

Stairs at Wollongong Station

Zahra and Ahmad follow the walkway around Circular Quay.

Circular Quay Sydney, 2018

Walkway to the Sydney Opera House

Sydney Opera House from the walkway

Back in Fairy Meadow she takes Ahmad to the beach. Surfers fascinate him.

The road to the beach

The approach to the beach

A surfer

Ahmad loves the beach but a change in the weather forecasts a change in Zahra’s life.

Fairy Meadow beach looking north

Fairy Meadow Beach looking south

The escarpment as seen from Fairy Meadow Beach

Storm clouds gather above the escarpment

Karim’s Story

Karim leaves Tehran with all its memories and arrives in New York. While walking in Central Park he meets a young woman, Lauren. Her clothes and lifestyle contrast strongly to those of Iranian women in 1979.

A gateway at Persepolis

Mosque portal detail

Tehran Street

Ramsar, Iran

Chador-clad women, Iran

A view of New York, 2017

Columbus Statue, Columbus Circle, New York

Bike riding in Central Park, New York

Central Park, New York

An apartment block in mid-town New York, similar to the one Lauren might have lived in.

Apartments W57th Street, New York

Street scene, Mid-town New York

Street scene with steam, New York

Karim is offered an opportunity to design apartments and houses near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, USA. Since 1979 Myrtle Beach has expanded. While there, he and Harry visit the Dead Dog Saloon.

The road into Myrtle Beach, SC

Development at Myrtle Beach, SC

Fairground at Myrtle Beach, SC

Apartments near Myrtle Beach, SC

Holiday homes at Myrtle Beach, SC

Holiday homes near Myrtle Beach, SC

Sign for the Dead Dog Saloon at Murrells Inlet, Myrtle Beach, SC

Memorial wall at the Dead Dog Saloon, Murrells Inlet, Myrtle Beach, SC

Harry and Karim visit Lawrence’s club in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. The photos below show the extensive number of antebellum style houses in Charleston.