Synopses & Reviews
The first English-language story collection from "one of Iran's most important living fiction writers" (Guardian)
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.
Review
"While the turmoil and danger of everyday life in Iran are the backdrop, Mandanipour focuses on the personal struggles of the characters and their hardscrabble lives... These haunting, urgent works are as nuanced and provocative as the lives they depict." Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Review
"A stunning collection of stories about Iran's traditions, its violent recent history, and how the memory of both influences daily life." Foreword Reviews (starred review)
Review
"Cause for celebration... Mandanipour provides readers with a vivid and idiosyncratic map of [Iran's] people and places, effortlessly translated by Sara Khalili whose close collaboration with the author is palpable on every gleaming, blade-sharp page." Chicago Review of Books
Synopsis
The first English-language story collection from "one of Iran's most important living fiction writers" (Guardian)
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.
Shahriar Mandanipour is an award-winning, exiled Iranian author and journalist who served in the Iran-Iraq war. His fiction has been published throughout the world, including two acclaimed novels published in English. He lives in California.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Shahriar Mandanipour is an award-winning, exiled Iranian author and journalist who served in the Iran-Iraq war. His fiction has been published throughout the world, including two acclaimed novels published in English and the story collection
Seasons of Purgatory. In 2006, Mandanipour moved to the United States. He has held fellowships at Brown University, Harvard University, and Boston College and has taught at Brown University and Tufts University. He lives in California.
Sara Khalili is an editor and translator of contemporary Iranian literature. She is the recipient of a PEN Translation Fund Award for Shahriar Mandanipour's story collection Seasons of Purgatory and her translations from the Persian of Mandanipour's novels were longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize and named a finalist for the Best Translated Book Award. She lives in New York.