Kissing the Sword - 2nd Edition by Shahrnush Parsipur (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for Kissing the Sword:

"Parsipur makes a stylishly original contribution to modern feminist literature." --Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis

"Parsipur's memoir is a powerful tale of a writer's struggle to survive the worst cases of atrocities and injustice with grace and compassion. A terribly dark but truly illuminating narrative; Parsipur forces the reader to question human nature and resilience." --Shirin Neshat, artist

"Kissing the Sword is a deeply moving, closely observed classic of its form. . . . When they imprisoned Shahrnush Parsipur, they picked on one of the world's greatest and most determined living authors." --Robert Coover, from the introduction

About the Author

Born in Iran in 1946, Shahrnush Parsipur began her career as a fiction writer and producer at Iranian National Television and Radio. She was imprisoned for nearly five years by the Islamist government without being formally charged. Shortly after her release, she published Women Without Men and was arrested and jailed again, this time for her frank and defiant portrayal of women's sexuality. While still banned in Iran, the novel became an underground bestseller there and has been translated into many languages around the world. She is also the author of Touba and the Meaning of Night, among many other novels and short stories. Parsipur immigrated to the US in 1994 and lived in exile in Northern California until her death in 2026.

Sara Khalili is a financial journalist, editor, and translator of contemporary Iranian literature. Her published translations include As Red as Fire Tasting of Smoke, Selected Poems of Siavash Kasraii; Lucky those Half-Opened Buds, Selected Poems of Fereydoon Moshiri; several short stories in Strange Times My Dear: A PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature; and various short stories by Shahriar Mandanipour. Khalili won a 2007 PEN Translation Fund Grant for her translation from the Farsi of Seasons of Purgatory, a selection of short stories by Iranian writer Shahriar Mandanipour.