Seasons of Purgatory

Name: Seasons of Purgatory
Brand: HighBridge Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Shahriar Mandanipour
ISBN: 9781696607681

Author: Shahriar Mandanipour, Sara Khalili

Narrator: Fajer Al-Kaisi

Unabridged: 5 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Highbridge Audio

Published: 02/15/2022

Categories: Fiction, Short Stories, World Literature

Synopsis

The first English-language story collection from "one of Iran's most important living fiction writers" (Guardian)

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.

About Shahriar Mandanipour

Shahriar Mandanipour is an award-winning, exiled Iranian author and journalist who served in the Iran-Iraq war. His fiction has been published throughout the world, including two acclaimed novels published in English and the story collection Seasons of Purgatory. In 2006, Mandanipour moved to the United States. He has held fellowships at Brown University, Harvard University, and Boston College and has taught at Brown University and Tufts University. He lives in California.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David on December 27, 2022

This is first time I've read Mandanipour, and I can understand his reputation as a literary stylist. Taken individually, the stories in this collection were uniformly good: richly textured with a sensibility that blends the lived experience of those stuck in Tehran with a hint of the magical. Taken......more

Goodreads review by Jo on April 25, 2022

2.5 stars The first story in this collection really worked well for me with an older, widowed male character who becomes obsessed with the animals in the zoo next door. Several of the stories feature animals -often in a threatening role- there is a viper that lives in a family house where the childre......more

Goodreads review by Poptart19 (the name’s ren) on June 10, 2022

4 stars An excellent set of short stories in translation, full of variety, fluid prose, & compelling narratives. [What I liked:] •Man, this is a really great collection of short stories! Each one is poignant & well written without becoming repetitive; the painful moments are sketched with subtlety &......more

Goodreads review by Oscreads on September 16, 2022

YESSSSS!!! This was everything.......more