A moving account of life as a political prisoner in post-revolutionary Iran, from the acclaimed author of the International Booker Prize-longlisted Women Without Men.
Women Without Men has sold over 30,000 copies in the United States since its 2004 English-language release and has been acclaimed as a masterpiece of Iranian literature. But before it was published, its author, Shahrnush Parsipur, spent four and a half years in Iranian prison, incarcerated without charges after the Revolution of 1979.
Kissing the Sword, Parspiur's memoir of her time in prison, captures the surreal experience of serving time as a prisoner under a fundamentalist power: nights blasted by machine-gun fire as detainees are summarily executed, days spent debating prison officials on whether the Quran demands that women be covered. Throughout it all, Parsipur filled notebook after notebook, many of which were confiscated by prison guards, with observations that would later appear in her novels. An essential companion to Parsipur's fiction work, Kissing the Sword reveals how one of modern Iran's great writers maintained her sharp sense of humor, political convictions, and creative voice in the midst of extreme oppression.
