Forthcoming by Asemana Books (May 8, 2026)

Nila: The Elephant Who Had Two Hearts

By

Shahriar Alvandi

Illustrated by:

Parisa Akbari

ISBN: 978-1-997503-22-4

In this powerful anti-war story for young readers, acclaimed writer Shahriar Alvandi joins forces with illustrator Parisa Akbari Shahraki to create a deeply moving and visually stunning book about peace, memory, and imagination.

Told with poetic sensitivity and quiet strength, the story invites children to see the world through a lens of empathy and hope. Akbari Shahraki’s magnificent creativity and eye-catching, surreal illustrations expand the emotional landscape of the narrative, transforming each page into a dreamlike space where tenderness resists violence.

Innovative, thought-provoking, and profoundly humane, this book is a celebration of peace-building through art — a story that speaks to both children and the adults who read with them.

Shahriar Alvandi (born 1974 in Tuyserkan, Iran) is an Iranian writer, poet, and journalist, and a graduate of Dramatic Literature from the University of Art in Tehran. His writing draws on lived memory, childhood experience, and the emotional geography of place, offering a poetic and reflective engagement with both personal and collective history.

Part of his work belongs to peace literature, with a focus on the Iran–Iraq War, and has received several literary awards. He has also conducted research on Iranian traditional music and is the author of The History of Music in Iran for young readers. Alvandi is a board member of the Iranian Association of Writers for Children and Young Adults.

Parisa Akbari Shahraki was born in 1979 in Tehran. She is a member of the Iranian Illustrators Association and works as an illustrator of children’s and young adult books.

Her interest in illustration was reignited when she rediscovered her childhood drawings and remembered how easily and carefree she once created images. Old objects remind her of the simple world of her childhood, and by incorporating them into her work, she brings that same joy and excitement into the present.