Salar Abdoh

A sweeping, propulsive novel about the families we are born into and the families we make for ourselves, in which a man struggles to find his place in an Iran on the brink of combusting Amid the alleyways of the Zamzam neighborhood of Tehran, a woman lights herself on fire in a desperate act of defiance, setting off a chain reaction of violence and protest. Haunted by the woman’s death, Issa is forced to confront the contradictions of his own family history, throughout which his late brother Hashem, a prominent queer artist in Tehran’s underground, had defied their father, a skilled martial artist bound to traditional notions of honor and masculinity. Issa soon finds himself thrown into a circle of people living on the margins of society, negotiating a razor-like code of conduct that rewards loyalty and encourages aggression and intolerance in equal measure. As the city explodes around him, Issa realizes that it is the little acts of kindness that matter most, the everyday humanity of individuals finding love and doing right by one another. Vibrant and evocative, intimate and intelligent, A Nearby Country Called Love is both a captivating window into contemporary Iran and a portrait of the parallel fates of a man and his country—a man who acknowledges the sullen and rumbling baggage of history but then chooses to step past its violent inheritance.

A Novel

A Nearby Country Called Love

Informed by firsthand experience on the battlefronts of Iraq and Syria, Abdoh captures the horror, confusion, and absurdity of combat from a seldom-glimpsed perspective that expands our understanding of the war novel. "Abdoh’s powerful novel follows an Iranian war reporter who is torn between his wearying job on the front lines and a civilian existence that he finds increasingly alienating. The book is as much a reflection on memory and art as it is a war story, and Abdoh’s writing captures beautifully the absurdity of both the battlefield and modern life." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice “One of a handful of great modern war novels...These wars will not end until we look at what we are doing and what we have done. Abdoh’s novel lifts the veil on the murderous insanity.” --Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, for ScheerPost "As much a meditation on time and memory as it is a book about war...Abdoh skillfully captures combat's intrinsic absurdity...For many Americans, the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have become abstractions, separated from our lives by geographic as well as psychic boundaries. Abdoh collapses these boundaries, presenting a disjointed reality in which war and everyday life are inextricably entwined...[The novel shines] a brilliant, feverish light on the nature of not only modern war but all war, and even of life itself." --New York Times Book Review "Transcendent." --The Daily Beast "A masterful, stylish novel told from the perspective of a disaffected Iranian writer who is drawn to the militias fighting in Syria and Iraq. Abdoh beautifully illustrates the paradoxes of war in the field and on the home front, alternating moments of brutality and comradeship and showing war's pointless heroisms, its random accidents, its absurdities, and its ongoing human costs. This is at once a probing look at the disaster in Syria and Iraq, and an affectionate yet gimlet-eyed view of masculinity, art, and cultural politics." --The Millions, One of the Most-Anticipated Books of 2020 "Abdoh explores the lives behind the war-torn headlines in a way that captures the full humanity of the participants. Channeling a bit of Tim O'Brien and a good deal of Joseph Heller, he has written the best novel to date on the Middle East's ceaseless wars." --Library Journal, STARRED review Saleh, the narrator of Out of Mesopotamia, is a middle-aged Iranian journalist who moonlights as a writer for one of Iran's most popular TV shows but cannot keep himself away from the front lines in neighboring Iraq and Syria. There, the fight against the Islamic State is a proxy war, an existential battle, a declaration of faith, and, for some, a passing weekend affair. After weeks spent dodging RPGs, witnessing acts of savagery and stupidity, Saleh returns to civilian life in Tehran but finds it to be an unbearably dislocating experience. Pursued by his official handler from state security, opportunistic colleagues, and the woman who broke his heart, Saleh has reason to again flee from everyday life. Surrounded by men whose willingness to achieve martyrdom both fascinates and appalls him, Saleh struggles to make sense of himself and the turmoil in his midst. An unprecedented glimpse into "endless war" from a Middle Eastern perspective, Out of Mesopotamia follows in the tradition of the Western canon of martial writers--from Hemingway and Orwell to Tim O'Brien and Philip Caputo--but then subverts and expands upon the genre before completely blowing it apart. Drawing from his firsthand experience of being embedded with Shia militias on the ground in Iraq and Syria, Abdoh gives agency to the voiceless while offering a meditation on war that is moving, humane, darkly funny, and resonantly true.

Out of Mesopotamia

Urban Iran

"Not since the London of Joseph Conrad's Secret Agent has a city ticked with as much tense significance as the Tehran of Salar Abdoh's edgy, topical, yet deeply humane Tehran at Twilight."?Brad Gooch, author of City Poet "A remarkable meditation on violence, and on all the ways one bears witness to pain. Abdoh depicts a pulsating portrait of Tehran?a mad city of entrenched loyalties and corrupt alliances, of smugglers, hustlers, and lifelong runners, of forged documents and lost corpses."?Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz The year is 2008. Reza Malek's life is modest but manageable?he lives in a small apartment in Harlem, teaches at a local university, and is relieved to be far from the blood and turmoil of Iraq and Afghanistan where he worked as a reporter, interpreter, and sometime lover for a superstar journalist who has long since moved on to more remarkable men. After a terse phone call from his childhood best friend in Iran, Reza reluctantly returns to Tehran. Once there, Reza finds far more than he bargained for: the city is on the edge of revolution; his friend is embroiled with murderous Shiite militants; his missing mother, who was alleged to have run off with a lover before the revolution, is alive and well; while his own life is in danger. Against a backdrop of corrupt mullahs, shady fixers, political repression, and the ever-present threat of violence, Abdoh offers a telling glimpse into contemporary Tehran, and spins a compelling morality tale of identity and exile, the bonds of friendship, and the limits of loyalty. Salar Abdoh was born in Iran, and splits his time between Tehran and New York City, where he is co-director of the Creative Writing MFA Program at the City College of New York.

Tehran at Twilight

An unflinching noir exploration of one of the world's most volatile cities.

Tehran Noir

Crime fiction set in Iran—including a finalist for the Shamus Award for Best PI Short Story. “Tehran Noir is not only a solid crime collection, but an illuminating look into day-to-day life in the Middle East, with religious and political implications galore, as well as racial tensions bubbling just beneath the surface. . . . The stories in Tehran Noir aren’t always easy to read, but they are engaging in the extreme.” —San Francisco Book Review Includes brand-new stories by Gina B. Nahai, Salar Abdoh, Lily Farhadpour, Azardokht Bahrami, Yourik Karim-Masihi, Vali Khalili, Farhaad Heidari Gooran, Aida Moradi Ahani, Mahsa Mohebali, Majed Neisi, Danial Haghighi, Javad Afhami, Sima Saeedi, Mahak Taheri, and Hossein Abkenar. “A stellar and diverse cast of Iranian writers. . . . A collection such as this is able to bring Iran to life for the foreign reader in a way other fiction and non-fiction cannot. . . . Superb.” —PopMatters

An Iranian American returns home to help a friend and finds his life in danger: “Remarkable . . . a smart, eloquent novel.” —Dalia Sofer, author of The Septembers of Shiraz The year is 2008. Reza Malek’s life is modest but manageable—he lives in a small apartment in Harlem, teaches at a local university, and is relieved to be far from the blood and turmoil of Iraq and Afghanistan, where he worked as a reporter, interpreter, and sometimes lover for a superstar journalist who has long since moved on to more remarkable men. But after a terse phone call from his best friend in Iran, Reza reluctantly returns to Tehran. Once there, he finds far more than he bargained for: the city is on the edge of revolution; his friend is embroiled with Shia militants; and his missing mother, who was alleged to have run off before the revolution, is alive and well—while his own life is now in danger. Against a backdrop of corrupt clerics, shady fixers, political repression, and the ever-present threat of violence, this novel offers a telling glimpse into contemporary Tehran, and spins a riveting morality tale of identity and exile, the bonds of friendship, and the limits of loyalty. “[A] swift, hard-boiled novel . . . Shadowy zealots exist everywhere, whether in conference rooms or interrogation rooms or—most often—in rooms that can serve as both.” —TheNew York Times Book Review “A gripping portrait of a nation awash in violence and crippled by corruption.” —Publishers Weekly “A smart political thriller.” —Laila Lalami, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of The Moor’s Account “Gives readers a visceral sense of life in a country where repression is the norm . . . Recommended for espionage aficionados and for readers who enjoy international settings.” —Library Journal “A fascinating glimpse of contemporary Iran through the familiar story of childhood friends whose paths are beginning to diverge irreversibly.” —Shelf Awareness

Opium is the story of a world-weary young American who has spent a substantial part of his thirty-something years in the Middle East. Formerly a low-level drug-runner along the Afghan/Iran border, he is now living in New York and keeping a low profile as a simple hotel clerk. But in the new age of mass terror Chase's past inevitably catches up to him, and he finds himself on a quest that thrusts him through three continents where he is confronted by drug dealers and assassins, Middle Eastern agents and embittered Western converts to Islam, as well as powerful Moslem Shiite clerics who run the clandestine arm of one of the most insidious security services ever assembled. Finding himself in this maze of intrigue, murder and double-deals, he sees no option but to play a lethal end-game in the heart of the Axis of Evil.

Opium

„Abdoh maluje poruszający portret kraju pogrążonego w przemocy, przeżartego bezprawiem […]. Robi wrażenie”. Publishers Weekly Frapująca moralizatorska przypowieść o poczuciu własnej tożsamości i wygnaniu, o więzach przyjaźni oraz granicach lojalności. Jest rok 2008. Reza Malek wiedzie skromne, ale całkiem znośne życie – mieszka w niewielkim lokum w Harlemie, na miejscowym uniwersytecie naucza kreatywnego reportażu, ma szczęście pozostawać daleko od krwawych konfliktów w Iraku i Afganistanie, gdzie występował jako reporter, tłumacz, a od czasu do czasu także kochanek dziennikarki celebrytki, już dawno zainteresowanej zresztą innymi mężczyznami. Po krótkiej, lapidarnej rozmowie telefonicznej z Siną Vafą, swoim najlepszym przyjacielem mieszkającym w Iranie, Reza z niechęcią powraca do Teheranu. Po przybyciu na miejsce odkrywa, że jest gorzej, niż się spodziewał: miasto znajduje się na skraju rewolucji, jego przyjaciel Sina ma związki z bojówkami szyickimi, a zaginiona matka Rezy, która podobno uciekła z kochankiem przed rewolucją, żyje i ma się dobrze. Co gorsza, ktoś nastaje również na życie Rezy… „Abdoh zgrabnie oddaje niespokojną atmosferę Teheranu roku 2008, kłębowiska zdrady i demoralizacji”. Library Journal

Salar Abdoh

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