A wonderfully accessible literary novel, that draws on Iran's rich literary heritage but which always remains engaging and very readable.
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.
** 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 - *
Shahriar Mandanipour has won numerous awards for his novels, short stories, and non-fiction in Iran, although he was unable to publish his fiction from 1992 until 1998 as a result of censorship. Mandanipour was born in 1957 in Shiraz and now lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a visiting scholar at Harvard University. His work has appeared in PEN America, Literary Review and the Kenyon Review, and he is regarded as one of the most accomplished and successful writers in contemporary Iran.