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What happens when a real work of art shows up in a work of fiction? Join Dalia Sofer, author of the novel Man of My Time, and Freer and Sackler chief curator Massumeh Farhad for a discussion about the role a celebrated late 16th-century drawing by artist Riza Abbasi plays in the story, and about memories of life in Iran from the 1950s to the present. Set in Tehran and New York City, Man of My Time follows members of a family over several generations in order to explore variations of loss—of people, places, ideals, time, and self. It is a novel not only about family and memory but also about the intertwining of captor and captive, country and citizen, and individual and heritage.
Dalia Sofer is the author of the novels Man of My Time (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)—a New York Times Editors’ Choice and Notable Book of 2020—and The Septembers of Shiraz (Ecco Press, 2007). A recipient of a Whiting Award and the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize, Sofer has contributed essays and reviews to The New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Believer. Born in Tehran, Iran, Sofer moved as a child to New York, where she attended the Lycée Français de New York, and later, New York University. She received an MFA in fiction from Sarah Lawrence College. She lives in New York City and teaches at the City University of New York (CUNY) City College.
Massumeh Farhad is chief curator and The Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries. She is a specialist in 16th-century and 17th-century arts of the book from Iran. Dr. Farhad has curated numerous exhibitions about the arts of the Islamic world at the Freer and Sackler, including The Art of the Qur’an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts (2016–17). She received her PhD in Islamic art history from Harvard University.
Image courtesy of Anthony Rhoades |
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