Man of My Time

by Dalia Sofer

Literary Fiction

Historical

Political

384 Pages

"A riveting tale of a man rotting from the inside, just as his nation is also in moral convulsions. Man of My Time is both wrenching and wise, giving the reader food for thought in every elegantly-wrought sentence."

Synopsis

Set in Iran and New York City, Man of My Time tells the story of Hamid Mozaffarian, a man as alienated from himself as he is from the world around him. After decades of ambivalent work as an interrogator with the Iranian regime, Hamid travels on a diplomatic mission to New York, where he encounters his estranged family and retrieves the ashes of his father, whose dying wish was to be buried in Iran. Tucked in his pocket throughout the trip, the ashes propel him into a first-person excavation—full of mordant wit and bitter memory—of a lifetime of betrayal, and prompt him to trace his own evolution from a perceptive boy in love with marbles to a man who, on seeing his own reflection, is startled to encounter "a beautiful, indignant thug." As he reconnects with his brother and others living in exile, Hamid is forced to reckon with his past, with the insidious nature of violence, and with his entrenchment in a system that for decades ensnared him. Politically complex and emotionally compelling, this novel explores variations of loss—of people, places, ideals, time, and self—delving deep into the interdependence of captor and captive, citizen and country, individual and heritage.

Our Take

From the bestselling author of The Septembers of Shiraz comes a morally complex masterwork that refuses easy answers or comfortable judgments. Dalia Sofer crafts an unflinching portrait of complicity, examining how an idealistic revolutionary boy becomes the kind of man who inflicts unimaginable violence in service of a regime. What makes Man of My Time extraordinary is Sofer's compassion and acerbic humor in depicting someone who is simultaneously monster and victim—too intelligent to ignore the consequences of his actions yet trapped by the turbulent momentum of history. Her prose is exquisite, reminiscent of Persian poetry in its unexpected imagery and profound observations, slicing directly to the heart of each scene with devastating precision. Set against the backdrop of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its aftermath, the novel explores how a person becomes "the system" through incremental choices and moral compromises. The tension between Sofer's elegant language and her protagonist's nihilistic unraveling creates a haunting irony that underscores the book's central question: can historical context ever excuse personal evil? For readers drawn to the morally ambiguous protagonists in Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist or the political complexity of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, this novel offers similar depth and urgency. A New York Times Notable Book with starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly, Man of My Time is a brilliant meditation on power, betrayal, and the fragility of human morality—a deeply humane inquiry into Iran's history and soul.