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Seasons of Purgatory by Shahriar Mandanipour
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INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED AUTHOR: Published in over a dozen countries, Shahriar Mandanipour has been compared to such modern masters of international literature as Salman Rushdie and Milan Kundera by James Wood in the New Yorker and Michiko Kakutani in the New York Times. Lauded for his "sensual prose" (Los Angeles Times) that "illuminates the labyrinth of paradoxes entrapping the politically repressed" (Booklist), he "draws our attention to both the possibilities for freedom and redemption as well as the soul-crushing realities of war and power to imprison the human soul and psyche" (World Literature Today). Available in English for the first time, these stories underscore Mandanipour's reputation as one of Iran's greatest contemporary writers-in-exile.
SEAMLESS TRANSLATION: Sara Khalili, who was also born in Iran, is one of the premier translators of Persian writers. She was first introduced to Mandanipour's work through his short fiction, and her ongoing, close collaboration with him has led to numerous accolades, including a PEN Translation Fund Award for the stories in Seasons of Purgatory. As she says, "the first work of fiction I read by Shahriar was the short story 'Shatter the Stone Tooth, ' included in this collection. And all it took for me to be hooked and mesmerized were the two haunting opening sentences. . . . Every word is carefully chosen, nothing is incidental, nothing is wasted."
RARE WINDOW ONTO A LITTLE-KNOWN WORLD: Mandanipour's starkly uncompromising and beautifully written stories, rich in metaphor and symbolism, provide insight into a misunderstood people and country that have been largely cut off from the West for over forty years. By turns surreal and palpable, mythical and gritty, they range from Iran's cities to its countryside and introduce us to lovers, prisoners, tyrannical family patriarchs, soldiers on the battlefield, grieving parents, and children with heartbreaking questions.
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, where he became a citizen in 2021. 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.
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