“A layered portrayal of a man who through several decades has carried with him the conflicting pieces — beauty and brutality, revolt and repression — of his country’s history . . . finely wrought, a master class in the layering of time and contradiction that gives us a deeply imagined, and deeply human, soul… While Sofer is part of a notable generation of Iranian-American writers who write, in part, about divided families, divided worlds and divided selves, she is also, more broadly, part of an enduring American tradition: the writer who lives, creatively, both here and in the imaginative territory of another time and place, a point of familial or personal origin that looms large. The beating heart of American literature has always been the contributions of those looking both forward and back, both at America and at the world."—Rebecca Makkai, The New York Times 

“The portrait of [Hamid’s] political evolution and interior deterioration is extraordinary… Sofer’s novels prefer to hover above time, sparing us the tropes and documentary horrors that make so much 1979 fiction feel stunted. Certainly there is some horror and violence in Man of My Time, but it is all the more chilling for its restraint; aphorisms and Persian mythology are also present, but alongside the Campbell Soup Party for Andy Warhol at the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art and the antique glass shops on Lalezar. There are dark meditations on how the executor of violence, while technically the victor, also surrenders his humanity.”—Azadeh Moaveni, Times Literary Supplement 

“... mesmerizing and unsettling ... The tension between the elegance of Sofer’s language and the nihilistic unraveling of her antihero emphasizes the irony of the title, which lays bare the conceit that a person’s actions might be excused by historical context. Readers will find Sofer’s meditation on power’s ability to corrupt as relevant and disturbing as the day’s headlines.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“... powerful ... A gorgeously written character study that examines, with sensitivity and pathos, the small steps that lead a man down an unexpected and ultimately isolating path.”— Booklist (Starred Review)

 “One is often tempted while reading this novel to think of Hamid as little more than an introspective species of monster. But Sofer brings compassion, insight, and acerbic humor to her depiction of a man at once too intelligent to altogether ignore the consequences of his behavior yet helpless to withstand the turbulent momentum of history ... A perceptive, humane inquiry into Iran's history and soul.”—Kirkus (Starred Review)

“A powerful, complex, and profoundly anguished novel made more relevant by current tensions.”—Library Journal (Starred Review)

“A brilliant, gripping account of countries, politics, and the long reach of history . . . This book could not have arrived at a more urgent time.” ―Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, author of Brief Encounters With the Enemy

“With Iran so intensely before us, Man of My Time does what only fiction can do. We are inside the mind of a man whose choices keep stunning us, in the violence of politics and in the intimacy of family. A masterful novel, eye-opening in its tale of the multiplying costs of betrayal.” ―Joan Silber, author of Improvement

“The glory of Man of My Time is in the author’s ability to project a range of possibilities — causes and outcomes — and bring them alive through her glistening prose and deep humanity.” Philip K. Jason, Washington Independent Review of Books 



“Restrained, precise, ineluctable, this is a fable for our anguished era.”—Elzbeth Lindner, Book Oxygen

“The tragedy with­in this mag­nif­i­cent nov­el is what makes it, sad­ly, real­is­tic on two lev­els: how youth­ful betray­als that frac­ture a family’s foun­da­tion may be, in the end, irrepara­ble; and how the destruc­tion of a seem­ing­ly sta­ble coun­try can occur with star­tling speed — whether it’s a devel­op­ing coun­try in the 1970s fight­ing ghar­bzadeghi—’west­ox­i­fi­ca­tion’ — or a first-world coun­try in 2020, expe­ri­enc­ing fis­sures with­in its own bedrock.”—Amy Spun­gen, Jewish Book Council

“Dalia Sofer’s bold and beautiful novel explores boundaries that are geographical, political, ethical, and temporal. Her unsparing yet empathic portrait of Hamid Mozaffarian challenges facile notions about the distance between good and evil, right and wrong, judgment and redemption. At once haunted and haunting, Man of My Time is very much a book for our time.” ―Michael Frank, author of What is Missing 

“In the grand tradition of confessionals, Dalia Sofer’s wry but troubled narrator unfolds a riveting tale of a man rotting from the inside, just as his nation, Iran, and so much of the rest of the world today is also in moral convulsions. Both wrenching and wise, Man of My Time gives the reader food for thought in every elegantly-wrought sentence and on every level at once: the political, personal, historical and philosophical. A brilliant examination of the roots and fragility of human morality, this is one of the great books of our age.” ―Helen Benedict author of Wolf Season and Sand Queen 

“In Dalia Sofer's engrossing and deeply moving novel, the revolution devours it children. Her memorably flawed narrator Hamid imperfectly navigates violence, inheritance, betrayal, and ‘so much sorrow’ in post-revolutionary Iran. It is a beautifully conceived and heartbreaking family portrait.” ―Mark Sarvas, author of Memento Park