An exciting novel that easily bears comparison to Milan Kundera's early writing. A wonderfully accessible literary novel, that draws on Iran's rich literary heritage but which always remains engaging and very readable.
- An exciting novel that easily bears comparison to Milan Kundera's early writing.* A wonderfully accessible literary novel, that draws on Iran's rich literary heritage but which always remains engaging and very readable.
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PRODUCT INFORMATION
Summary
- An exciting novel that easily bears comparison to Milan Kundera's early writing. * A wonderfully accessible literary novel, that draws on Iran's rich literary heritage but which always remains engaging and very readable.
- An exciting novel that easily bears comparison to Milan Kundera's early writing.* A wonderfully accessible literary novel, that draws on Iran's rich literary heritage but which always remains engaging and very readable.
Description
Truly original, CENSORING AN IRANIAN LOVE STORY is an incredibly imaginative yet always charming love story set in contemporary Iran that crackles with wit, verve and social comment: 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.
Awards
Winner of Muslim Writers Award for Best International Fiction 2011 (UK)
Critic Reviews
“ 'Censoring an Iranian Love Story is intriguing even before its first page . . . An absorbing and unique novel with a depth of feeling for words and stories in Iran' The Scotsman 'A playful tale . . . Censoring an Iranian Love Story is a brilliant novel about the complexities of writing and publishing in Iran' Guardian 'The absurdities of life in the Islamic Republic of Iran provide frequent moment of hilarity ? typical of political satires in the tradition of Milan Kundera . . . Censoring an Iranian Love Story in both context and style gives us a timely glimpse of the complex and infuriatingly paradoxical society that is today's Iran . . . Mandanipour has the potential to create a genre of Persian literature that could breach the gap in literary sensibilities that separates readers from vastly different traditions' Irish Times 'A marvellous tale . . . This is a writer intoxicated with the possibilities of language, and his timely, well-translated book is about a potent love affair, not only with women, but also with words' New Statesman 'This important, timely novel is sharp, playful and zesty with life' Daily Mail 'This is a very special novel . . . passionate, inventive and humorous' The Times 'It's a powerful, provocative and timely novel' Observer 'I absolutely loved Censoring an Iranian Love Story. Insightful and sensual, humorous and sly, allegorical and literary, it is an endless pleasure: a celebration of love and the written word from a part of the world where both still matter' Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan 'Mandanipour's writing is exuberant, clever, profuse with puns and literary-political references; the reader might easily think of the Rushdie of Midnight's Children. . . . Charming, inventive, playfully alive' James Wood, THE NEW YORKER 'Darkly comic . . . A novel about two young Iranians trying to conduct a romance in Tehran and a Kundera-like rumination on philosophy and politics [that] investigates the possibilities and limits of storytelling . . . Haunting' Michiko Kakutani, NEW YORK TIMES”
Censoring an Iranian Love Story is intriguing even before its first page . . . An absorbing and unique novel with a depth of feeling for words and stories in Iran The Scotsman A playful tale . . . Censoring an Iranian Love Story is a brilliant novel about the complexities of writing and publishing in Iran Guardian
* A marvellous tale . . . This is a writer intoxicated with the possibilities of language, and his timely, well-translated book is about a potent love affair, not only with women, but also with words New Statesman -About the Author
Shahriar Mandanipour was born in 1957 in Shiraz and has had fiction and non-fiction published in Iran, although his work was banned between 1992 and 1998; he is regarded as one of Iran's most accomplished and successful writers. He is currently a visiting scholar at Harvard.
Truly original, CENSORING AN IRANIAN LOVE STORY is an incredibly imaginative yet always charming love story set in contemporary Iran that crackles with wit, verve and social comment: 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.
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