Marsha Mehran

Mehran was born in Tehran on 11 November 1977, to an accountant father and her mother Shahin was a teacher. Both practiced Iran’s Baháʼí Faith, which was considered heretical by hardline Islam. When, a year later, the Shah’s regime began to crumble, the couple began to make plans to leave. After the storming of the American embassy in Tehran upended their plan to move to the USA, the family instead migrated to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1979, at the time of the Iranian Revolution. Mehran grew up in Argentina and the United States, as well as lived in Australia and Ireland.{{cite news|url=http://www.rte.ie/tv/theafternoonshow/2005/1117/chef130mm.html|title=RTÉ Television - The Afternoon Show|date=17 November 2005|work=RTÉ Television|accessdate=7 June 2013}}{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/03/magazine/03LIVES.html?_r=0 |work=The New York Times |first=Marsha |last=Mehran |title=The Long Way Home |date=3 July 2005}}{{cite news |title= The mystery of Marsha Mehran - the best-selling young novelist who died a recluse in a rubbish-strewn cottage in Mayo |author= Milmo, Cahal |date= January 1, 2015 |website= Independent.ie |url= http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-mystery-of-marsha-mehran-the-bestselling-young-novelist-who-died-a-recluse-in-a-rubbishstrewn-cottage-in-mayo-30876174.html}}

In their new home, political upheaval, this time associated with the rule of the Argentine junta, forced the family to once more move continents. This time the family moved to America, where in Miami, Mehran pursued, for a decade, her then dream of becoming a concert pianist.

Mehran's parents divorced, and in the 1990s, Mehran and her mother came to New York. Mehran told an interviewer: “I arrived in New York with only $200 in my pocket. I worked, initially, as a hostess in a restaurant owned by Russian mobsters. There were no customers there, which I thought a bit odd at first, until I realised that the restaurant was just a front for their other dealings.”

At age 17, Mehran's father reports, her permanent visa for the United States was revoked for a "minor infraction". Unhappy about having to leave the United States, Mehran moved to Australia where her parents were now living. She then moved back to the USA on a Holiday Visa when she was 19. At 21 she moved back to Australia with her then partner Christopher before jumping back and forth between Ireland, Australia and New York. She received an Artist visa from the US in 2006 and moved back to New York.

Mehran's debut novel, Pomegranate Soup (2005), is the story of three sisters who escape Iran at the time of the Revolution and eventually settle in a small town in the west of Ireland, where they open the Babylon Cafe. Mehran used her own family's experiences when writing the novel, which includes a number of recipes and combines "Persian cooking with Irish living." Pomegranate Soup has been translated into 15 languages to date,{{when|date=August 2015}} and published in over 20 countries worldwide.{{cite web|url=http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm/author_number/1191/marsha-mehran |title=Marsha Mehran biography, plus links to book reviews and excerpts|website=BookBrowse.com}}

Her second novel, Rosewater and Soda Bread (2008), is a continuation of Pomegranate Soup.{{cite news | last = Phillip | first = Mary | title = Marsha Mehran serves up more Irish magic | date=9 November 2008 | work = The Courier-Mail | url = http://www.couriermail.com.au/entertainment-old/books-old/rosewater-soda-bread/story-e6freqkx-1111117996087 | accessdate = 7 June 2013}} It marked the second installment of a series that was cut short by her death in April 2014. The series was to run for seven books; the third, Pistachio Rain, was due for publication in 2014.

Her posthumous novel, The Margaret Thatcher School of Beauty (2014), later titled The Saturday Night School of Beauty, is set in Buenos Aires during the Falklands War and tells the story of a group of individuals who gather once a week to recite poetry and tell tales of what has been.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WR4-AAAAQBAJ |title=The Margaret Thatcher School of Beauty|date=2014|author=Mehran, Marsha |publisher= HarperCollins Publishers|isbn=9781743099506}}

Matador Pictures optioned Pomegranate Soup in 2013 with Kirsten Sheridan slated to write and direct the film.{{cite news|url=http://www.screendaily.com/news/production/matador-unveils-six-film-slate/5054737.article |title=Matador Pictures announces six film |work=ScreenDaily.com}}

Mehran was married to Christopher Collins from County Mayo, Ireland. They met when he was a bartender in an Irish pub, in Manhattan, New York. They then lived in Ireland for two years.{{cite web | last=Lythgoe | first=Dennis |title=Author spices up Soup with life experiences |date=28 August 2005 |work=Deseret News |url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/600158626/Author-spices-up-Soup-with-life-experiences.html?pg=all |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029190807/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/600158626/Author-spices-up-Soup-with-life-experiences.html?pg=all |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |accessdate=14 February 2015}} In 2013, the couple divorced.{{cite news |title=Novelist vomiting weeks before her death |url=http://iran-times.com/novelist-vomiting-weeks-before-her-death/ |accessdate=13 February 2015 |work=Iran Times |date=16 May 2014 |quote=She and her husband divorced last year ...}}

Mehran was found dead in her rented house in Lecanvey, County Mayo, Ireland, on 30 April 2014, having been dead for about a week.{{Cite web|last=O'Carroll|first=Sinead|date=August 29, 2015|title=The mystery of Marsha Mehran: From Iran's revolution to a lonely death on Mayo's coast|url=https://www.thejournal.ie/marsha-mehran-death-2299280-Aug2015/|access-date=2021-12-08|website=TheJournal.ie|language=en}} She had lived there as a recluse and had deteriorated mentally, with the house filled with rubbish. She had suffered from long-term inflammatory bowel disease; the autopsy indicated this may have been a factor in her death, though it was not possible to identify the exact cause.{{cite news |last=Milmo |first=Cahal |date=1 January 2015 |title=The mystery of Marsha Mehran - the best-selling young novelist who died a recluse in a rubbish-strewn cottage in Mayo |url=http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/the-mystery-of-marsha-mehran-the-bestselling-young-novelist-who-died-a-recluse-in-a-rubbishstrewn-cottage-in-mayo-30876174.html|newspaper=Irish Independent |location=Dublin |accessdate=2 January 2015}} Her ashes were sent for resting in Melbourne.

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• {{cite web|url=http://www.marshamehran.com|website= MarshaMehran.com|title=Official website maintained by her father}}

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Category:1977 births

Category:2014 deaths

Category:Writers from Tehran

Category:21st-century novelists

Category:Iranian women novelists

Category:21st-century Iranian women writers

Category:American people of Iranian descent

Category:20th-century Iranian novelists

Category:20th-century Iranian women writers

Category:Exiles of the Iranian Revolution