Shahriar Mandanipoor was born in Shiraz in 1957.
As a child he wanted to be a writer, and started to read and write a lot.
Studied political science in Tehran university. Editor of a literary magasine, director of Shiraz library, and Hafez Research Center were his occupations.
At the onset of the Iran-Iraq war, he joined the military and volunteered for duty at the front.
His first collection of story was published in 1989. He is the winner of numerous awards for his novel, short stories, and nonfiction in Iran, although he was unable to publish his fiction from 92 to 97.
He is also translator of Kafka and Kundera.
Since 2006 he is living in the U.S. and is named as the third international writers project fellow at Brown university. He is currently a writer scholar at Harvard university and lives in Cambridge Massachusetts.
His style in Farsi is considered as unique and non translatable.
"Censoring an Iranian love story", is his first book available in English.
Dara meets Sara for the first time in a public library, he falls in love.
To see each other and share their love of literature, he tries to send her, coded messages. They meet each other in the mosque and hospital emergency department to share their love of literature in this Iran of interdictions.
Their love story is used by the writer to describe the censorship in Iran and the imposed restrictions of the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance impersonated by a Dostoevskian character, Mr. Petrovich.
At the primary school children used to learn alphabets and words based on the life of Dara and Azar, two happy children playing with their ball and doll.
Now in the Republic Islamic version of primary school's book, Azar's name has changed to Sara who is wearing headscarf. Dara and Sara are no more playing with doll and ball.
In the book every single name has its own signification. You have to read between the lines to discover the untold story.
The prediction of the imminent death of Sara at the start of the book is referring to the tragic death of a young student during the Green Mouvement, 2009.
The book is a mixture of surrealism, influenced by famous Iranian writer Sadegh Hedayat, and romantisme referring to Khosro-Shirin of Nezami Ganjavi.
Many Poetic passages, magic realism, funny part here and there, were among the appreciated points by the group. However many references to the books and films were seen as show off.
Note: Reference to Butimar: legendary bird in Persian literature symbol of permanent sorrow and anxiety.
Susan
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