Baharan Baniahmadi talks to Pamela about growing up in Tehran, navigating a duplicitous life, and how her mother’s last words were a plea for her to leave the country.

Just four years after moving to Quebec, Baharan published Prophetess and won the 2022 QWF Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. In lyrical prose, she captures the story of a young girl who witnesses a terrible crime against her sister. The girl goes into shock, becomes mute, and develops strange physical reactions to men as she begins to recognize - then later act on - the oppression in this world.

Listen to find out more about Baharan’s journey and why she is writing her next book in French.