Iran Literature

The Strait of Hormuz is not merely a modern geopolitical flashpoint—but a piece of an ancient Bible prophecy! A prophecy, often overlooked, exists in Genesis 22:17. It was a sovereign promise to Abraham's lineage stating, "Your descendants shall possess the gates of their enemies." In this explosive prophetic analysis, discover how a 4,000-year-old covenant directly explains one of today's most critical geopolitical flashpoints, the Strait of Hormuz. While mainstream historians view global trade routes through a purely secular lens, this book reveals a seldom discussed prophecy and its ...

#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...

Kamran Esfahani, a dentist living out a dreary existence in Stockholm, agrees to spy for the Mossad after he’s recruited by Arik Glitzman, the chief of a clandestine unit tasked with running targeted assassinations and sabotage inside Iran. At Glitzman’s direction, Kam returns to his native Tehran and opens a dental practice there, using it as a cover for the Israeli intelligence agency. Kam proves to be a skillful asset, quietly earning money helping Glitzman smuggle weapons, run surveillance, and conduct kidnappings.

Savushun chronicles the life of a Persian family during the Allied occupation of Iran during World War II. It is set in Shiraz, a town which evokes images of Persepolis and pre-Islamic monuments, the great poets, the shrines, Sufis, and nomadic tribes within a historical web of the interests, privilege, and influence of foreign powers; corruption, incompetence, and arrogance of persons in authority; the paternalistic landowner-peasant relationship; tribalism; and the fear of famine.

Compiled by bestselling author susan abulhawa, an Arabic-English bilingual anthology of true stories from eighteen young Palestinian writers trying to survive the genocide in Gaza. In early 2024, writer and activist susan abulhawa managed to enter Gaza twice through the Rafah crossing. There, at...

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...

How did Iran get to where it is today, at the forefront of global affairs? The history of Iran and the theme of Persian conflict with the West stretches back thousands of years, and it is a unique history of empire, culture, art, pride, and religious nationalism. The History of Iran from Ancient Persia to the Ayatollahs comprehensively and descriptively covers this history, progressing through a timeline dating back to antiquity and examining all of the different religious, political, foreign, and military issues that affect Iran and are affected by Iran today.

The Year of Turmoil (Sâl-e Balvâ) by Abbas Maroufi is a major work of modern Persian fiction that explores the intersection of personal suffering and national crisis in Iran during the 1930s and 1940s. Set in the final years of Reza Shah’s reign and the Allied occupation, the novel follows Noushafarin, the daughter of a military officer who moves to the provincial town of Sangsar in search of stability, only to become trapped in an oppressive marriage to Dr. Masoum, a manipulative physician emblematic of patriarchal authority and moral corruption. Told through a fluid, stream-of-...

A rich and varied collection of contemporary short stories, extracts from novels, and poetry that will go a long way toward informing the English-speaking world of the latest developments in Iranian literature. This sampling - or to use the Farsi term golchine, a bouquet - provides a window onto an important but sorely neglected segment of world culture. We hope it will also serve to awaken further interest in the work and in translations of Iranian novelists and poets.

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.

Tehran, 1941. The world is ablaze, but in neutral Iran, life carries on—until British and Russian tanks roll in. Though much has been written about World War II, little is known of Iran's trials during the conflict. Many remember the Japanese surprise assault on Pearl Harbor, epitomizing deceitful warfare, just as Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's treacherous invasion of the Soviet Union, played a parallel tune of unexpected aggression.

A family secret revealed 40 years ago by a grandmother to her grandson is now an acclaimed Russian historical fiction novel. A Hundred Sweet Promises is the tale of the author’s grandfather, Nasrosoltan, a famed composer, who on the eve of World War I travels from Persia to Russia to study classical music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with such masters as Rimsky-Korsakov.

Ahmad Mahmoud sets The Neighbors against the backdrop of the oil nationalization crisis that gripped Iran in the early 1950s. His protagonist, Khaled, a young man from a rundown neighborhood in Ahvaz, a city in southern Iran, becomes involved in the struggle to wrest Iran’s oil industry from the British and, as the result of his political activities, comes to realize that there is more to life than the drudgery and poverty his parents and neighbors have experienced. The Neighbors, published in 1974, cemented Mahmoud’s reputation as a novelist and captured the ethos of a generation--the ...

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.

In the summer of 1320/1941 while the war is raging in Europe and spreading to the borders of Iran, the illustrious Azimi family migrate to their summer home and sprawling property in the north of the city as they do every year. This is a humorous story of the summer of war conspiracy theories and the Azimi family dealing with the war at their door step.

They couldn't help themselves. After writing "Meetings at the Metaphor Cafe" and their life changing experience in Mr. Buscotti's English class their junior year, Maddie, Mickey, Rhia, and Pari pour out their hearts and souls as they must choose their path in their final year of high school. Along the way Maddie learns how life can be so fragile as she meets Jasmine; Pari hears inspiration in the voice of singer Saba; Rhia comes face to face with the damage sexual abuse can inflict; and Mickey learns what it takes to step up to the plate and face his destiny. The clock is running down as ...

When it comes to classic literature, Histories by Herodotus is one of the masterpieces. In this classic, Herodotus tells of how a group of Greek states banded together to defeat the mighty Persian Empire. Throughout the story, Herodotus includes colorful descriptions of Egypt, as well as tales of lake dwellers in Europe and even a dog that can heal the ill and ants that dig gold from the earth.

WINNER OF THE 2026 CALIBA GOLDEN POPPY AWARD “A novel about love, secrets, and the unknown depths of the people we love, Female Life on Planet Earth is intoxicating. Khadivi writes with bristling intelligence and real beauty.” —Katie Kitamura, national bestselling author of Audition The...

Un roman dans l'univers de la série Le Bureau des Légendes, au cœur de la DGSE. Alors que le capitaine Yannick Corsan, agent à la DGSE, est sur la touche depuis plusieurs semaines, ses chefs sont contraints de le réintégrer pour pallier un manque d'effectif. Sa destination ? La frontière pakistano-iranienne, où les trafics sont un mode de vie. Là-bas, les Mouettes, membres d'un service de la DGSE dont les opérations n'existent pas, vont mener une mission d'infiltration pour stopper un convoi stratégique et préserver la politique de non-prolifération nucléaire de la France.

When the US learns of a planned genocidal attack by Middle East terrorists, Bravo Platoon is called in. They must fight their way through to a besieged Syrian town to bring out the Israeli agent who first flagged the threat. Leaving behind a long, bloody trail of Syrian bodies, they battle their way out to carry the data back for analysis by NSA. The recovered decrypts show a rogue element of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the Pasdaran, is building a dirty bomb, to be used on Israel and the US. Bravo Platoon is sent back into action, this time to Iran.