This collection of thirty-five Persian shortstories by twenty-six of Irans best known contemporary writers gives voice to the concerns, strivings, and visions of their generation. In styles ranging from the dark to the humorous, from the elegant to the poetic, these stories depict aspects of both traditional and modern life in Iran with its many religious, political, cultural and class tensions. The expanding role of women in Iranian society is attested to both by the large number of women writers included in the volume, and by the central role played by women in many of the stories. Written during the last seventyfive years and arranged in chronological order, these stories span a period in Iranian history from the Constitutional Revolution (1906 11) through the long reign of the Pahlavis (192579), the upheavals of the 1950s, the 1979 Islamic Revolution, to the present. Stories from Iran was selected, edited, and translated by scholars of Persian Literature at the University of Chicago. Accompanied by a complete glossary, author biographies and photos, it will give the reader an unmatched insight into Iranian lifean insight that only true works of art can provide.
