The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Azar, Shokoofeh. The Enlightenment of the Greengage Tree. Europa Editions, 2020.

The novel takes place in Iran, and spans from the years 1979 to present day. Though the narrative is nonlinear, the action of the novel is set off by 1979 Iranian Revolution and follows the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war set off by the revolution. The narrative follows the stories of a seemingly ordinary family of five, and is narrated by the first person but omniscient point of view of Bahar, the ghost of a 13-year-old girl.

Bahar dies in 1979, when fire is set to her family’s home by a group of revolutionists. After her death, her mother Roza, father Hushang, sister Beeta, and brother Sohrab move from the city of Tehran to small-town Razan. Though Bahar is dead, her ghost is able to interact with her family members, and so she refuses to ascend to the spirit realm and instead remains with her family.

Razan is much more isolated than Tehran, so the family feels they have escaped the revolution. However, years later the war makes its way to Razan, as the town’s young men are recruited to fight as soldiers. Sohrab and some others run away to avoid this forced recruitment, which lands Sohrab an arrest for evading military duty. Sohrab is moved to multiple prisons, until eventually he is hanged for his crime. His body is buried in a pit with hundreds of other executed prisoners, and so his family never see his body.

After Sohrab and the other prisoners are executed, Sohrab ascends to the spirit realm, while the others set out to haunt Ayatollah Khomeini. The ghosts torment Khomeini for both his role as dictator and part in ordering their executions. They force Khomeini to build a palace of mirrors, which becomes a labyrinth that he eventually gets lost in. The moment before he dies in the maze, Khomeini looks back on his life and regrets his actions.

At the moment that Sohrab is hanged, Roza sits atop a greengage tree and attains spiritual “enlightenment” (1). When she later learns about his execution, she aimlessly wanders into the woods. The other mothers in Razan who lost their sons in the war follow her, claiming to see the ghosts of their children. Roza, however, never sees Sohrab’s ghost. She walks so far that soon she is walking alone, until she meets a mysterious traveler. Roza grows close to the stranger, and eventually falls in love with him. The two make love, and Roza does not return to Razan.

Beeta and Hushang are devastated by the disappearance of Roza. In an attempt to cheer up, Beeta hires a man named Issa to work as her gardener. Before long, Beeta falls in love with Issa and the two initiate a romantic and sexual relationship. Eventually, without even saying goodbye, Issa leaves Beeta for another woman. Heartbroken, Beeta decides to leave Razan and return to Tehran.

Beeta warns Bahar not to follow her to Tehran, so Bahar stays behind in Razan with Hushang. When Beeta returns years later, Bahar immediately notices a change within her sister. Hardened by life in Tehran, Beeta turns to the comfort of myths and fairytales. She begins to daydream so much that her physical self becomes affected. One night after dreaming of making love to Issa, Beeta awakes and gives birth to a fish. Beeta births hundreds of more fish as she slowly transforms into a mermaid.

Hushang eventually releases Beeta into the ocean, where she is finally happy. Because her mind becomes that of a fish, Beeta eventually forgets both Hushang and Bahar. Saddened by yet another loss, Hushang decides it is time for him to return to Tehran.

In Tehran, Hushang gets mixed up in a protest. Protestors accuse him of being a British spy and take him hostage. Hushang is interrogated and told to write, so he decides to write his memoir. However, when the interrogator reads all of the details that Hushang includes about ghosts and spirits, he is forced to rewrite it. Hushang takes out the mythical details, but writes what the interrogator sees as anti-government propaganda, and is thus thrown in prison. Hushang is only released from prison after he is deemed too old to be a threat.

One day, Beeta dreams of her family and comes to the beach’s shore in search for them. However, she instead finds a group of violent men who sexually assault and attempt to rape her. Onlookers refuse to intervene, some film the incident, and the men decide to kill her. A nearby guard shoots Beeta and her body is buried in the sand. Only the women in the town come to mourn for her death.

Meanwhile, Roza finally returns to Razan and waits for Hushang. After his family’s home is looted and demolished by the order of the Tehran mayor, Hushang does return to Razan. Bahar leads her parents to Beeta’s grave so that they may bury her elsewhere. After Beeta’s burial, the ghost of Sohrab and Beeta suddenly appear. Being the only ones still alive, Hushang and Roza will themselves to die.

All five family members come together as ghosts and they walk into the forest. Roza leads them to the very greengage tree she once reached enlightenment in, and the family begins to climb it. As they climb, the tree grows higher and higher. Once all five of them reach the top, they simply “let go” (271), and are absorbed into the bark.