Life In Translation (Zendegi be Zabani Digar)

Fereshteh Kowssar's "Life in Translation" (Zendegi beh Zabani Digar) is a collection of short pieces, some in her favorite genre of satyr. Ranging from the issue of censorship in Iran to domestic violence against women and remembering the almost forgotten period of Covid-19, the book deals with a variety of topics. In the four pieces in which she remembers her father, mother, and brother she uses a very personal and intimate prose. In "The Scissor of Time", the author analyzes the drawings of the illustrator of one of her books, to show how the period of her youth and that of many others has been faded after the revolution in Iran. In "The Sweet Smell of the Road", she tells the story of an elephant who is taken away from her homeland. In "Life in Translation", which is also the name of this book, she uses humor to show the problems of Iranians, like herself, in English speaking countries. The issue of language is a common thread throughout the book. The final three pieces are review articles on writer Mahshid Amirshahi, director Abbas Kiarostami and poet Houshang Ebtehaj.

Fereshteh Kowssar, an author and educator, taught Persian at Yale University before her retirement. She studied at the School of Literature and Human Sciences of Tehran University, studying with professors such as Dr. Gholam Hossein Sadighi, Dr. ABBAS Zaryab-Khoi, DR. Yahya Mahdavi and Dr. Alimorad Davoudi. She has published four books both in the US and Iran, one of which, Bidad e Sokoot (Outrage of Silence), received the Isfahan Literary Award in 2005.