When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: how do you decide on a book title?

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious takes its title from the ordinary bird that lives close to human beings: on rooftops, in courtyards, near windows and in streets where life continues even when history becomes unbearable.  It arose through Ali Seidabadi’s immediate experience of the recent bombings in Tehran and in the book he writes:

“My childhood in the village was filled with the sound of sparrows, and during this war, their voices have felt like the sound of life itself.

I have seen how, at the moment of an explosion, they become restless and frantic.

I have felt their absence on days when the blasts were intense.

I have always remembered spring by the sound of sparrows – but this year, they have noticeably diminished.

I want to turn what I have written so far into a book. I had already chosen a title for it:

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War

He wrote this close to World Sparrow Day – 20th March. Whilst this marks the spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, it is also the New Year in Iran (Nowruz) which Ali writes about in the book and illustrates with photos: it’s a time when sparrows are nesting and their presence in cities and farms becomes most visible.

Much like canaries in coal mines, sparrows are indicator species. Their disappearance signals air pollution, loss of green spaces and fewer insects. They are closely tied to our lives; they nest in eaves, feed on crumbs and chirp in courtyards. Their decline reflects how modern cities are losing biodiversity. Sparrows also show up in Persian poetry and Sufi thought as symbols of humility, resilience, community, simplicity and divine care: the idea that even the smallest creature is noticed. These ideas resonate strongly with Persian poetic and moral traditions that value tavazo (humility) and finding meaning in the ordinary. 

World Sparrow Day fits neatly with that cultural view: paying attention to the small, ordinary things that hold spiritual and ecological meaning: and in Ali’s book, the anxious sparrow also becomes a witness, a warning and a companion to ordinary life in Tehran under pressure.

We are pleased to announce that in the future, NOP too will remember World Sparrow Day on 20^th March and dedicate our work to those small indicators of health and well-being which we unwittingly rely upon so much.

Thanks to Lili Hayeri Yazdi for additional text: and to Paul Warren our resident illustrator for his responses to When the Sparrows Grow Anxious.

To order your copy now or find out more about the work of NOP please feel free to get in touch here!

Email:     nick@nickowenpublishing.co.uk
Website: www.nickowenpublishing.com

When the Sparrows Grow Anxious: Diaries from Tehran at War
Author: Ali Asghar Seidabadi
Publisher: Nick Owen Publishing Ltd
Publication: 15 June 2026
ISBN: 9798197042132
Format: [Hardback / Paperback / Kindle / eBook)
Available from: Nick Owen Publishing / Amazon

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