Review: "Once Upon a Time in Uppsala" by Shirin Amani Azari

Once Upon a Time in Uppsala by Shirin Amani Azari
Published February 2023 via the Book Guild
★★★

Winter, 1985: Shirin Azari and her mother and brother are new to Uppsala, Sweden, where they have fled to escape the war in Iran. Everything is different: the cold outside makes it impossible to keep plans; people stand far apart when they talk; nobody makes eye contact; music is listened to as a matter of enjoyment rather than subversion; people sunbathe naked in the park in summer. At twelve, Azari knows that the only way to handle this is to hold on to the knowledge that they will be going home. Any day now. Just as soon as the war is over.

Once Upon a Time in Uppsala takes the reader through Azari's first year in Sweden—learning the language, standing up to playground bullies, adjusting to Swedish culture but also to the understanding that home as she knew it is not really there anymore. It's a gradual shift but a natural one, aided by her new best friend Turkan (recently arrived from Turkey) and by her burgeoning confidence in Swedish.

Interspersed throughout the story are folk tales, some from Iran and some from Sweden and some of unknown origin. As with any folk tales, some have clear morals (for the most part not directly connected to Azari's family) while others seem like pleasant tales to tell a child; worked into this memoir, they're lovely and help to keep Iran alive in the story even as Azari becomes more comfortable in Sweden. It occurred to me, reading this, that most of the folk tales I know either come from Western countries or have been Westernized, and I'd love to see more of these Persian folk tales collected in a volume.

This makes for a quick read and gives a solid sense of what it was to be an immigrant/refugee child in Sweden in the 80s. I imagine that a lot of it still holds true today—easier communication with people back home, thanks to the Internet, but the same struggles to fit in and yearnings for home. This would be a valuable read both for young refugees in foreign lands and for their local peers.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.