Aref-Adib

The Boy on the Peacock Throne is an illustrated memoir of a childhood spent in Tehran from the 1960s through the early 1980s, shaped by life before and after the 1979 Revolution. Told through short prose pieces and the author’s illustrations, the book moves through moments held within frames of memory: a tricycle circling a garden pool, music drifting from the radio, laughter echoing through courtyards, and the everyday rituals of home in Iran as they were lived and remembered. As the child grows, the outside world presses inward, and memory becomes both personal and shared. Moving gently between innocence and awareness, the book offers a tender, visually rich portrait of Iranian life as experienced inside ordinary homes during extraordinary times. Thoughtful and humane, The Boy on the Peacock Throne invites readers to linger, to look closely, remember deeply, and enter a world shaped by family, belonging, and change.