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Censoring an Iranian Love Story

By Shahriar Mandanipour

(1)

| Hardcover | 9780307269782

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Book Description

From one of Iran's most acclaimed and controversial contemporary writers, his first novel to appear in English--a dazzlingly inventive work of fiction that opens a revelatory window onto what it's like to live, to love, and to be an artist in today's Iran.

The novel entwines two equally powerful Continue

From one of Iran's most acclaimed and controversial contemporary writers, his first novel to appear in English--a dazzlingly inventive work of fiction that opens a revelatory window onto what it's like to live, to love, and to be an artist in today's Iran.

The novel entwines two equally powerful narratives. A writer named Shahriar--the author's fictional alter ego--has struggled for years against the all-powerful censor at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Now, on the threshold of fifty, tired of writing dark and bitter stories, he has come to realize that the "world around us has enough death and destruction and sorrow." He sets out instead to write a bewitching love story, one set in present-day Iran. It may be his greatest challenge yet.

Beautiful black-haired Sara and fiercely proud Dara fall in love in the dusty stacks of the library, where they pass secret messages to each other encoded in the pages of their favorite books. But Iran's Campaign Against Social Corruption forbids their being alone together. Defying the state and their disapproving parents, they meet in secret amid bustling streets, Internet cafes, and lush private gardens of Tehran.

Yet writing freely of Sara and Dara's encounters, their desires, would put Shahriar in as much peril as his lovers. Thus we read not just the scenes Shahriar has written but also the sentences and words he's crossed out or merely imagined, knowing they can never be published.

Laced with surprising humor and irony, at once provocative and deeply moving, Censoring an Iranian Love Story takes us unforgettably to the heart of one of the world's most alluring yet least understood cultures. It is an ingenious, wholly original novel--a literary tour de force that is a triumph of art and spirit.

Critics

  • CENSORING AN IRANIAN LOVE STORY by Shahriar Mandanipour

    “We Iranians take great pride in the empires we have built. If you read our extraordinary history, our country has been occupied time and again…and then, with diplomacy, intelligence, cunning, and patience, we have introduced our invaders…to our cult ... (read full critics)

    mostlyfiction published on Thu, 30 Sep 2010

  • Censoring an Iranian Love Story by Shahriar Mandanipour

    When a story comes to an Iranian writer's mind, he or she is doomed to think of two different versions: the story as it is, and a bowdlerised version that might avoid the scissors of official censorship. The latter is the one that will be submitted t ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

1 Review

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  • Delicious, but not quite satisfying.

    This is the kind of book that, for someone with little experience with Persian/Iranian literature, is deeply intriguing and invites re-reading because it's impossible to gather all the levels of meaning compressed within the narrative. A fascinating look at contemporary Iran, the struggle of its man ... (continue)

    This is the kind of book that, for someone with little experience with Persian/Iranian literature, is deeply intriguing and invites re-reading because it's impossible to gather all the levels of meaning compressed within the narrative. A fascinating look at contemporary Iran, the struggle of its many kinds of artists, its beauties, its horrors, and the forces that act against love.

    Is this helpful?

    Chezmerelda said on Mar 16, 2010 | Add your feedback

Book Details

  • Rating:
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  • English Books
  • Hardcover 295 Pages
  • ISBN-10: 0307269787
  • ISBN-13: 9780307269782
  • Publisher: Random House of Canada
  • Pub date: May 05, 2009
  • Also available as: Others
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