Touba and the Meaning of Night by Shahrnush Parsipur

Touba and the Meaning of Night by Shahrnush Parsipur

Touba and the Meaning of Night introduces English-speaking readers to the masterpiece of a great contemporary Persian writer, renowned in her native Iran and much of Western Europe. This remarkable epic novel, begun during one of the author's several imprisonments, was published in Iran in 1989 to great critical acclaim and instant bestseller status--until Shahrnush Parsipur was again arrested a year later, and all her works banned by the Islamic Republic.

After her father's death, fourteen-year-old Touba proposes to a fifty-two-year-old relative in order to ensure her family's financial security. Intimidated by her outspoken nature, Touba's husband soon divorces her. She marries again, this time to a prince with whom she experiences tenderness and physical passion and has four children--but he proves unfaithful and unreliable. Touba is granted a divorce from him, and lives out the rest of her long life as matriarch to a changing household of family members and refugees.

From a distinctly Iranian viewpoint, Tuba and the Meaning of Night explores the ongoing tensions between rationalism and mysticism, tradition and modernity, male dominance and female will. Throughout, it defies Western stereotypes of Iranian women and Western expectations of literary form, speaking in an idiom that reflects both the unique creative voice of its author and an important tradition in Persian women's writing.

Shahrnush Parsipur, who was born in Iran in 1946, started her career as a fiction writer and producer at Iranian National Television and Radio. She was held captive by the Islamist regime for nearly five years without being charged. She was arrested and detained again shortly after her release, this time for her honest and rebellious portrayal of women's sexuality in her book Women Without Men. The novel became an underground bestseller in Iran while it was still forbidden, and it has been translated into many languages across the world. She is the author of many books, including Touba and the Meaning of Night, and now lives in exile in Northern California.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781558615199
ISBN 10	1558615199
Title	Touba and the Meaning of Night
Author	Shahrnush Parsipur
Series	Women Writing The Middle East
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Feminist Press at The City University of New York
Year published	2006-05-18
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.