Seasons of Purgatory

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. In this collection, the fantastical and the visceral merge in tales filled with opposites: the boredom and brutality of war; modern urban life and rural traditions; tender desire and sudden violence. Mandanipour delivers fierce social critique in stories steeped in the beauty of an ancient land and culture National Book Award for Translated Literature Longlist"In the first English-language story collection from Iranian writer Shahriar Mandanipour, tales of tender desire & collective violence unfold alongside those of the boredom & brutality of war & the clash of modern urban life & rural traditions." "Short stories translated from the Persian"-- Provided by publisher