Tell me you killed Tahereh!

By Dr. Hossein Zolghadr

In a quiet Iranian village during World War II, silence became a survival strategy-and a young girl's death shattered it forever.

Tell me you killed Tahereh ? is a haunting work of literary historical fiction that brings to life a forgotten chapter of wartime Iran.

The story begins in Margasin, a farming village bound by centuries of ritual and tradition. Life is harsh but rooted in community-until 1941, when Soviet troops march in after the Allied invasion of Iran. With them comes famine, fear, and the slow unraveling of ordinary life.

When Tahereh, a curious and bright sixteen-year-old girl, is found dead under mysterious and horrific circumstances, the villagers retreat into silence, paralyzed by shame and terror. Her grieving mother's cries echo through the village cemetery: "Tell me you killed Tahereh "

Into this fractured world steps Seyyed, a quiet outsider whose strength and moral clarity inspire whispers of resistance. Alongside returning soldiers and weary farmers, he helps organize a fragile underground movement-ordinary men and women determined to protect their dignity, even as Soviet retaliation grows more brutal.

Told in lyrical, restrained prose through the eyes of a wandering narrator who slowly reveals his own connection to the tragedy, Did You Kill Tahereh? is not simply a story of war-it is a story of memory. Of villagers forced to choose between silence and defiance. Of mothers who carry grief like armor. Of the unseen costs of occupation.

Inspired by true events, this novel shines a light on a buried chapter of history and speaks directly to the civilian suffering that continues in modern wars.

For readers of Khaled Hosseini (The Kite Runner), Elif Shafak (The Bastard of Istanbul), and Anthony Marra (A Constellation of Vital Phenomena), Tell me you killed Tahereh is a powerful reminder that even in the smallest, most remote places, stories of resistance and survival endure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0FP4G2Y8Y
• ISBN13: 9798262317394
• Release Date: August 2025
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"