Afsaneh, A Novel from Iran

"The truth always loses itself among memories. The truth can be lost as though it never existed. Not on the ground or anywhere else. The difference between a historical event and an insignificant happening in the life of an individual is that the historical event has witnesses who can differentiate the truth from the fiction." One evening, thirty year old Afsaneh Sarboland, dressed only in a thin orange dress, flees her husband and home and attempts to create a new life. In the story, Afsaneh, a single writer, struggles to carve a space for herself in the chaotic society that has been ravaged by the scars of war. Childhood tragedies, the devastations of war, and an abusive husband have combined to drive her to madness. Tainted by the shame of being alone in that night that she cannot remember, she begins to unravel, mixing the present with memories of the past. Afsaneh is based on the author's life as a nurse on the graveyard shift in the early eighties and her experiences on the front during the Iran-Iraq war. Magical realism and the bitter realities of contemporary Iran are intertwined. Ravanipur pushes the boundaries of temporal space, disrupting the notion of traditional textual layouts