How dare we send children to war?
Show notes
How does a nation convince its children that death is more valuable than life? That’s the haunting question at the heart of The Small Ones, a new novel by Nazanine Hozar. Following her acclaimed debut novel Aria, Nazanine draws on her own childhood memories of growing up in wartime Tehran to write a mythic, heartbreaking epic about young boys caught in the machinery of the Iran-Iraq war. It’s a story that’s part fable, part myth, part hero’s epic … and ultimately, it’s about what stays with us long after childhood is over. The Small Ones is a finalist for the 2026 Giller Prize. This week, Nazanine joins Mattea Roach to talk about experiencing war as a child, adding elements of mythology to the novel and how we can stop failing children on a societal level.
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