Bestselling author found dead in her Irish home

AN INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed novelist has been found dead in her Irish apartment.

It is believed that Marsha Mehran, an Iranian-American, had been dead for more than a week in the seaside village of Lecanvey, Co Mayo.

The 36-year-old's works include the international bestsellers 'Pomegranate Soup' and 'Rosewater And Soda Bread'.

A post-mortem examination was being carried out yesterday at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar.

Gardai in Westport say they are treating the matter as "a sudden death".

"There is nothing suspicious," a spokesman commented yesterday afternoon.

"There was no sign of a break-in or any foul play".

The body was discovered by her landlord on Wednesday.

Ms Mehran had been married to a local man from Claremorris, but it is understood they had divorced.

The dead woman was born in Tehran but migrated with her family to Argentina in 1979 at the time of the Iranian Revolution.

Later she moved to the US and has also lived in Australia, where her father still lives, and in the west of Ireland.

Mehran drew deeply on her experiences in the west of Ireland for her debut novel 'Pomegranate Soup' in 2005.

It is the story of three sisters who escape Iran at the time of the Revolution and eventually settle in a small town in the west of Ireland where they open the Babylon Café.

The best-selling novel has been translated into 15 lanugages and has been published in more than 20 countries.

A second novel, the highly popular novel, 'Rosewater And Soda Bread', was published in 2008.

Due out this year was a novel, 'The Margaret Thatcher School Of Beauty' which Mehran set in Buenos Aires during the Falklands War.

Irish Independent