Savushun is a novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Iranian writer Simin Daneshvar

Simin Daneshvar

Simin Dāneshvar is an Iranian academic, novelist, fiction writer and translator of literary works from English, German, Italian and Russian into Persian. Daneshvar has a number of firsts to her credit. In 1948, her collection of Persian short stories was the first by an Iranian woman to be...

. The story is about the life of a family in Shiraz

Shiraz

Shiraz may refer to:* Shiraz, Iran, a city in Iran* Shiraz County, an administrative subdivision of Iran* Vosketap, Armenia, formerly called ShirazPeople:* Hovhannes Shiraz, Armenian poet* Ara Shiraz, Armenian sculptor...

 faced to the occupation of Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. Savushun has sold over five hundred thousand copies in Iran. Being translated to English, this modern novel has been highly acclaimed in magazines and press such as USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

 and Kirkus reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus . Kirkus serves the book and literary trade sector, including libraries, publishers, literary and film agents, film and TV producers and booksellers. Kirkus Reviews is published on the first and 15th of each month...

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Daneshvar's strong knowledge and creative imagination have made Savushun one of the most influential modern works written in Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

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Daneshvar has used Folklore

Folklore

Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...

 and myth in writing Savushun.

Literally, Su-va-shun is the transformation of Sia-va-shun, reminding of the traditional mourning for Siyâvash

Siyâvash

Siavash or Siyāvush, from Avestan Syāvaršan, is a major figure in Ferdowsi's epic, the Shahnameh. He was a legendary Persian prince from the earliest days of the Persian Empire...

, a hero in Shahnameh

Shahnameh

The Shahnameh or Shah-nama is a long epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi between c.977 and 1010 AD and is the national epic of Iran and related societies...

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