Daneshvar's Playhouse: A Collection of Stories

by Simin Daneshvar, سیمین دانشور, Maryam Mafi (Translator)

In this rich collection of short stories, Daneshvar captures the essence of a rich traditional culture undergoing change: A child lost in a bazaar, a young woman who forsakes her husband, children, and home just to own a car, a traditional theater where the play and the players act on many levels, a colonel's allegience passing from the Shah to Khomeini, an old woman's memories, and a moving chronicle of the final days of Jalal Al-e Ahmad, the author's husband. Simin Daneshvar draws from over a thousand years of Persian storytelling tradition and combines this with modern techniques of short fiction and cinema. The result is both entertaining and a key of uncompromising honesty, rich detail, and a dazzling range of voices that guides the reader into the center of a complex society and its concerns.

Genres: Iran, Short Stories

184 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1989

About the author

Simin Dāneshvar ‎ was an Iranian academic, novelist, fiction writer and translator, largely regarded as the first major Iranian woman novelist. Daneshvar had a number of firsts to her credit.

Reviews

[Diamond · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the first two short stories, just not the last one. SO good, very emotional. Beautiful writing will definitely finish the last story :)

[Clarissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The prose is beautiful, although I can't tell how much of that beauty belongs to the author and how much to the translator.