My life in books

Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi

In her latest graphic novel, Satarpi, the author of Persepolis, the two-part personal memoir of a young Iranian girl growing up during the Revolution, and Embroideries, a look at family life and relationships though the eyes of the women of Satrapi’s family, turns her vision to the life – and death – of her great-uncle, musician Nasser Ali Khan.

Chicken with Plums is a meditation on the importance of art and love, set within the story of an artist who has lost and cannot replace the instrument that allowed him to express himself with passion, who carries within him an earlier loss of a love that gave him a passion to express. Without his instrument, Khan is overwhelmed with a sense of futility, has no desire to live any longer, and decides not to eat or drink again. Chicken with Plums is the story of what happens, among his family and friends, and in his own heart and mind, during the eight days it takes for him to die. Khan’s memories, fantasies and visions and the thoughts and actions of those around him, unravel the personal history of the artist that has led him to such a decision and illuminate the culture that has helped to shape his life and choices and the effect that the political and social changes in Iran over the first half of the 20th century have had on that culture.

Dark material, certainly, but at the same time full of life and celebration of the pleasures of life, and very powerful in its impact. It reminds us that, like the author's favourite family dish that serves as the book's title, there is no sweet without the sour, nor sour without the sweet.