Iran Literature

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...

Pack your bags! We're headed to Iran. On this whirlwind tour, you'll learn all about the country's landscape, culture, people, and more. We'll explore Iran's sandy deserts and the ancient ruins of Persepolis, take a tour of famous places of prayer, and hear about an Iranian soccer match! A special section introduces Iran's capital, language, and population. Hop on board and take a fun-filled look at your world.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE ONE OF THE BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE CENTURY* In this celebrated modern classic, a former teacher in revolutionary Iran tells the extraordinary true story of the women who risked their lives to study Western literature in...

Professor and author Azar Nafisi remembers empathy from unexpected sources in "Mysterious Connections that Link Us Together", her contribution to NPR's This I Believe series. This I Believe is a National Public Radio program that features Americans, from the famous to the unknown, completing the...

One the eve of the Shah of Iran's exile, Siamak and Gazaleh, two young offspring of prominent Iranian families, are joined by marriage. One of their guests is Phillipe, a Frenchman whose parents own a business in Tehran. After the wedding, Phillipe invites his two friends, Rezah and Ashin to Ramsar on the Caspian where his family owns a seaside villa. There, Phillipe receives a disturbing call from his mother.

Le 31 août 1978, l'imam que certains surnomment le Che Guevara libanais ou le Martin Luther King chiite disparaît après avoir rencontré le colonel Mouammar Kadhafi en Libye. On aurait retrouvé son passeport, sa valise et ses vêtements dans une chambre d'hôtel à Rome. Pour l'auteur, il a succombé aux charmes d'une Italienne et décidé de ne plus être l'imam.

1953: Der junge Journalist Eddy McLaine und sein Fotograf Bruno Matthiesen machen sich mit einem ausgebauten VW-Bus auf die weite Reise von Deutschland in den Iran. Begeistert von der fremden Welt des Orients und der iranischen Gastfreundschaft, gelingt es den aufgeschlossenen jungen Männern schnell, Kontakte zu knüpfen. Doch der Iran steht am Scheideweg zwischen Tradition und Moderne – Teheran ist ein Pulverfass und Eddy und Bruno sind mittendrin. Wenn jetzt noch herauskommt, dass Bruno und er viel mehr sind als nur Kollegen, könnte es für sie beide lebensgefährlich werden.

In 1892, Gertrude Bell visited Persia (now Iran) shortly after the appointment of her uncle, Sir Frank Lascelles, as British minister in Tehran. Three years later came Persian Pictures, Gertrude Bell’s first written work, which presents a series of vivid sketches of Persian culture and society at the time. Bell explores various cities and landscapes, and encounters local characters along the way, providing a unique perspective on Persian life and customs.

Primer libro de relatos de David Torres en el que se apuntan los temas y mimbres que irán estando presentes en el resto de su obra: el cuidado por la prosa, el lirismo, la meta literatura y una profunda conciencia social que impregna cada página. Una obra sólida de trazas carverianas y borgianas con una forma a la altura de su fondo.

I started making a list in my diary entitled “Things I Have Been Silent About.” Under it I wrote: “Falling in Love in Tehran. Going to Parties in Tehran. Watching the Marx Brothers in Tehran. Reading Lolita in Tehran.” I wrote about repressive laws and executions, about public and...

Leili could not have imagined that arriving late to Islamic morals class would change the course of her life. But her arrival catches the eye of a young man, and a chance meeting soon draws Leili into a new circle of friends and artists. Gathering in the cafes of Tehran, these young college students come together to create an underground play that will wake up their generation. They play with fire, literally and figuratively, igniting a drama both personal and political to perform their play - just once.

The year is 2008. Reza Malek’s life is modest but manageable - he lives in a small apartment in Harlem, teaches at a local university, and is relieved to be far from the blood and turmoil of Iraq and Afghanistan, where he worked as a reporter, interpreter, and sometimes lover for a superstar journalist who has long since moved on to more remarkable men.

There is something of both the absolutely spectacular and positively disgraceful about Tehran. But most writers around the world are inclined to think that their own sprawling metropolis is the capital of every imaginable vice and crime, of impossible love and tenderness and cruelty and malice in measures that seldom exist anywhere else. For me, Tehran's case is no different - except that there really is a difference here. The city may be a hothouse of decadence, a den of inequity, all that. But it still exists under the watchful eye of a very unique entity, the Islamic Republic.