Shadows of Tehran
Forged in Conflict: From Iranian Rebel to American Soldier
An Army Ranger attends to his fractured identity in the sprawling historical novel Shadows of Tehran.
In Nick Berg’s based-in-truth historical novel Shadows of Tehran, a boy seeks a sense of personal identity and security during a tumultuous period.
The son of a CIA operative and an Iranian teacher, Ricardo struggles to reconcile his dual nationalities and identities. His struggle is deepened by his father’s early abandonment of his family. After a desperate search for his father in the US produces threats from mysterious government agents, Ricardo returns to Iran. He finds the country in a state of upheaval; he is rendered an outsider in his homeland.
As memories of the US divide Ricardo from his peers and as anti-Western sentiment grows around him, he holds the lessons he learned from his American family dear. Those lessons, especially on the history of World War II, guide him through the Iranian Revolution, leading him to return to the US and join the Army Rangers. At last, he embraces the fullness of his fractured identity. He also continues searching for his father as he rises to the highest levels of his elite special operations unit.
Despite all of the personal and historical conflicts he survives, Ricardo is an underdeveloped lead. He weathers harrowing experiences, including sexual abuse and grievous wounds, yet his emotions are not revealed. In the place of his development are repeated declarations that Ricardo understands what is happening around him better than his peers and the adults around him. He evinces no weakness; as a result, even the most significant moments of his life are treated like bullet points rather than affecting events. They are documented, but their consequences for his psyche are not explored.
Also missing is descriptive language: While Ricardo experiences plentiful dramas and action, the events are often summarized after the fact. His fights are described in abstract terms, limiting their dramatic tension. Further, the book moves at a rapid speed that belies the nuances of the monumental experiences of Ricardo’s life. Regimes rise and fall, and Ricardo matures and becomes a leading special forces soldier, but these events aren’t given sufficient room to breathe. Further, secondary characters are introduced and removed from the narrative in short spaces; little time is spent developing either them or the book’s plot points. The flurry of names and dates becomes disorienting as the book progresses.
In the historical novel Shadows of Tehran, a disenchanted Iranian American youth witnesses the Iranian Revolution before seeking solid footing abroad.
Reviewed by
Austin Mitchell
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