Killing Gilda, a Novel

A beautiful nineteen-year-old named Gilda becomes the mistress of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. She dreams of becoming his wife. The narrator, in love with Gilda, follows clues about her death two years after the affair. During an assassination attempt on the Shah, he gets shot on the steps of the Marble Palace. As he puts it, "I took a bullet for my king up the ass and got a jester's seat, the best seat, to watch the fall of the Persian Empire." It's a love story that follows the best traditions of The Beauty and the Beast. We enter the rarified atmosphere of the court, the young woman's life, and the reasons for her death. We follow the characters through the Paris of Madame Claude, the Shah's ski resort at St. Moritz, and Doctor Pitanguy's plastic surgery clinic in Baden Baden. The story, full of intrigue and rare glimpses into Shah's private life, eschews easy labels. The Shah's sexual adventurism didn't stop his liberal policies for women's rights. Compared with Khomeini, whose dutiful love letters to his wife belie the disaster he wrought on Iranian women. It's a compelling portrait of a royal dynasty whose fall has profoundly impacted the modern world. The recent women's protests in Iran will heighten interest in the book. To kill is an action. Killing is a process. Killing Gilda is one woman's story trapped in a gilded cage.

About the Author: Born in Iran, the author earned an MFA from the University of New Hampshire. He has published short stories in The Kenyon and Massachusetts Review. The novel 1001: Persiranian Stories of Love and Revenge was a critical success. He currently resides in Wellesley, Massachusetts. (Please Scroll to see more)