(forthcoming Spring 2027)

FlowerSong Press

This book is a semi-autobiographical work by Bahar Momeni, illustrated by Ayana Thiel. It follows an Iranian girl’s decades-long fight for freedom, beginning on her seventh birthday amid unrest.

The protagonist, Neda—curious, defiant, determined. She comes of age under repression, falls in love with a childhood friend who turns fundamentalist, and is forced to immigrate to the United States in 2010, confronting culture shock and the isolation of life as an international student in Texas.

Her journey passes through the 2022 Woman, Life, Freedom uprising and culminates in a near-future moment when the struggles of generations of Iranians finally come to fruition, and Neda returns to a free Iran.

Intimate and unflinching, The Trees We Carry is a story of life, loss, and the stubborn work of liberation.