In 1969, with the novel genre in its infancy in Iran, Simin Daneshvar published Siavushun, the first novel by an Iranian woman. This novel -- a third-person narrative recounted from the point of view of Zari, a young wife and mother, living in Shiraz in the 1940s -- has enjoyed immense popularity, gone through sixteen reprints, and is "to this date [...] the sign most widely read Persian novel" ("Simin Daneshvar"). This popularity is attributable first to the authenticity of the protagonist Zari and her innately female world, second to the political and nationalist thrust of the novel.