Censoring an Iranian Love Story

Censoring an Iranian Love Story
Author: Shahriar Mandanipour
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2009-05-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 030727196X

A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • “One of Iran's most important living fiction writers” (The Guardian) shows what it’s like to live and love there today. "A haunting portrait of life in the Islamic Republic of Iran." —The New York Times In a country where mere proximity between a man and a woman may be the prologue to deadly sin, where illicit passion is punished by imprisonment, or even death, telling that most redemptive of human narratives becomes the greatest literary challenge. If conducting a love affair in modern Iran is not a simple undertaking, then telling the story of that love may be even more difficult. Shahriar Mandanipour (author of Moon Brow) evokes a pair of young lovers who find each other—despite surreal persecution and repressive parents—through coded messages and internet chat rooms; and triumphantly their story entwines with an account of their creator’s struggle. Inventive, darkly comic and profoundly touching, Censoring an Iranian Love Story celebrates both the unquenchable power of the written word and a love that is doomed, glorious, and utterly real.

Censoring An Iranian Love Story

Censoring An Iranian Love Story
Author: Shahriar Mandanipour
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2023-02-16
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0349146047

An incredibly imaginative yet always charming love story set in contemporary Iran that crackles with wit, verve and social comment 'A brilliant novel about the complexities of writing and publishing in Iran' Guardian 'Rich and riveting' Irish Times 'This important, timely novel is sharp, playful and zesty with life' Daily Mail 'A meditation on the interplay of life and art, reality and fiction' New York Times 'Mandanipour's writing is exuberant, bonhomous, clever... powerful' New Yorker Sara falls in love with Dara through secret messages hidden in code in the pages of books that have been outlawed, but then something quite extraordinary and unexpected happens. Through adeptly handled asides to the reader, as well as anecdotes, codes and metaphors, and cheeky references to the wonderfully rich Iranian literary heritage, the novel builds to offer a revealing yet often playful and hopeful comment on the pressures of writing within the tightly prescribed Islamic regime, pressures that naturally are heightened where affairs of the heart are concerned.

Censoring an Iranian Love Story

Censoring an Iranian Love Story
Author: Shahriyār Mandanīʹpūr
Publisher: Knopf
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2009
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307269787

Shahriar Mandanipour, a contemporary and controversial Iranian writer, presents his first novel written in English. Seamlessly entwining two related narratives, Mandanipour unfolds the tale of an Iranian writer attempting to pen a love story set in presen

Moon Brow

Moon Brow
Author: Shahriar Mandanipour
Publisher: Restless Books
Total Pages: 535
Release: 2018-04-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1632061295

"Before he enlisted as a soldier in the Iran-Iraq war and disappeared, Amir Yamini was a carefree playboy whose only concerns were seducing women and riling his religious family. Five years later, his mother and sister Reyhaneh find him in a mental hospital for shell-shocked soldiers, his left arm and most of his memory lost. Amir is haunted by the vision of a mysterious woman whose face he cannot see-- the crescent moon on her forehead shines too brightly. He names her Moon Brow. Back home in Tehran, the prodigal son is both hailed as a living martyr to the cause of Ayatollah Khomeini's Revolution and confined as a dangerous madman. His sense of humor, if not his sanity, intact, Amir cajoles Reyhaneh into helping him escape the garden walls to search for Moon Brow. Piecing together the puzzle of his past, Amir decides theres only one solution: he must return to the battlefield and find the remains of his severed arm-- and discover its secrets"--Amazon.com.

Seasons of Purgatory

Seasons of Purgatory
Author: Shahriar Mandanipour
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2022-01-25
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1942658966

NATIONAL BOOK AWARD LONGLIST The first English-language story collection from “one of Iran’s most important living fiction writers” (Guardian), “a playful, whip-smart literary conjuror: a Kundera or Rushdie of post-Khomeini Iran” (Wall Street Journal) In Seasons of Purgatory, the fantastical and the visceral merge in tales of tender desire and collective violence, the boredom and brutality of war, and the clash of modern urban life and rural traditions. Mandanipour, banned from publication in his native Iran, vividly renders the individual consciousness in extremis from a variety of perspectives: young and old, man and woman, conscript and prisoner. While delivering a ferocious social critique, these stories are steeped in the poetry and stark beauty of an ancient land and culture.

The Temporary Bride

The Temporary Bride
Author: Jennifer Klinec
Publisher: Twelve
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2017-02-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1455537683

For fans of Reading Lolita in Tehran, a true story of forbidden love set against the rich cultural and political backdrop of modern-day Iran. Jennifer Klinec is fearless. In her thirties, she abandons her bland corporate job to launch a cooking school from her London apartment and travel the world in search of delicious recipes and obscure culinary traditions. Her journey takes her to Iran, where she seeks out a local woman to learn the secrets of Persian cuisine. Vahid is suspicious of the strange foreigner who turns up in his mother's kitchen. Unused to such a bold and independent woman, he is frustrated to find himself, the prized only son of the house, largely ignored for the first time. But when the two are thrown together on an unexpected adventure, they discover a mutual attraction that draws them irresistibly toward each other--but also pits them against harsh Iranian laws and customs, which soon threaten to tear the unlikely lovers apart. Getting under the skin of one of the most complex and fascinating nations on earth, The Temporary Bride is a soaring, intricately woven story of being loved, being fed, and struggling to belong.

American Dervish

American Dervish
Author: Ayad Akhtar
Publisher: Little, Brown
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2012-01-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0316192821

From the author of Homeland Elegies and Pulitzer Prize winner Disgraced, a stirring and explosive novel about an American Muslim family in Wisconsin struggling with faith and belonging in the pre-9/11 world. Hayat Shah is a young American in love for the first time. His normal life of school, baseball, and video games had previously been distinguished only by his Pakistani heritage and by the frequent chill between his parents, who fight over things he is too young to understand. Then Mina arrives, and everything changes. American Dervish is a brilliantly written, nuanced, and emotionally forceful look inside the interplay of religion and modern life.

Find Your F*ckyeah

Find Your F*ckyeah
Author: Alexis Rockley
Publisher: Chronicle Books
Total Pages: 309
Release: 2019-09-17
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1797200054

Grounded in cutting-edge science but translated for people who speak emoji, Find Your F*ckyeah disrupts the warm and fuzzy "personal growth" fads made fashionable by mock gurus and self-proclaimed #selfcare experts. This bold guide combines humor, pop culture, and psychology to show us why the one-size-fits-all success formulas and trendy morning routines keep us caught in a cycle of boredom and stress, never fully sustaining our happiness. With hard science, guided experiments, and modern wisdom—from Beyoncé to Carl Jung—Alexis Rockley takes us step-by-step through the biological, cultural, and social factors that create our self-limiting beliefs. Debunking self-sabotaging ideals like "You Are a Living Brand" and "You Have One Calling," Rockley encourages us to discover our real, uncensored selves and find a sense of purpose, even when we don't have all the answers. For those of us tired of feeling the pressure to be better, do more, and work faster—to self-optimize and fall in line—Find Your F*ckyeah teaches us how to find joy where we are right now and to let our genuine self-expression guide us.

The Book of Fate

The Book of Fate
Author: Parinoush Saniee
Publisher: House of Anansi
Total Pages: 462
Release: 2013-08-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1770893849

Selected as one of World Literature Today's 75 Notable Translations of 2013 Spanning five turbulent decades in Iranian history, from before the 1979 revolution, through the Islamic Republic, and up to the present, The Book of Fate is a powerful story of friendship and passion, fear and hope. A teenager in pre-revolutionary Tehran, Massoumeh is an average girl, passionate about learning. On her way to school she meets a local man and falls in love, but when her family discovers his letters they accuse her of bringing them dishonour. She is badly beaten by her brother, and her parents hastily arrange for her to marry a man she’s never met. Facing a life without love, and the prospect of no education, Massoumeh is distraught, but a female neighbour urges her to comply: "We each have a destiny, and you can’t fight yours." The years that follow Massoumeh’s wedding prove transformative for Iran. Hamid, Massoumeh’s husband, is a political dissident and a threat to the Shah’s regime. When the secret service arrive to arrest him, it is the start of a terrifying period for Massoumeh. Her fate, so long dictated by family loyalty and tradition, is now tied to the changing fortunes of her country.

Things We Left Unsaid

Things We Left Unsaid
Author: Zoya Pirzad
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2012-05-01
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1780740840

A heartwarming and humorous insight into the hopes and aspirations of Iranians in the years that led up to the Islamic Revolution Deep in an Iranian suburb, made rich by the booming oil industry, Clarice Ayvazian lives a comfortable life surrounded by the gentle bickering of her children and her gossiping friends and relatives. Happy being at the heart of her family, she devotes herself to their every need. But when an enigmatic Armenian family move in across the street, something begins to gnaw at Clarice's contentment: a feeling that there may be more to life – and to her – than this. Dizzy with the sweltering heat and simmering emotions, Clarice begins to feel herself come alive to possibilities previously unimaginable. Set in Iran prior to the Islamic revolution, Zoya Pirzad's award-winning novel is perfect for fans of Anne Tyler, crafting an intimate portrait of family life – its joys and its compromises – and how we find a happiness that endures.