Forthcoming by Asemana Books (October 2026)
Short Stories by
Translated from the Persian by
ISBN: 978-1-997503-44-6
Rain-Soaked Persian New Year brings together fifteen finely crafted stories by acclaimed Iranian writer Zohreh Hakimi, whose fiction explores the quiet complexities of memory, migration, belonging, and human resilience. Born in Iran in 1955 and writing fiction since the 1990s, Hakimi has published two short-story collections and two novels, earning recognition including the Parvin Etesami Literary Award and distinction from the Houshang Golshiri Foundation. In this collection, translated into English by renowned scholar and translator M. R. Ghanoonparvar, readers encounter a rich gallery of characters navigating the emotional terrain of everyday life across continents, generations, and cultural worlds.
Moving seamlessly between Iran and the immigrant experience in North America, these stories illuminate moments of longing, loss, humor, and hope with remarkable sensitivity. Whether set in the streets of Tehran, the landscapes of the American Southwest, or the memories carried across borders, Hakimi’s narratives reveal the enduring ties between people and places. Thoughtful, lyrical, and deeply humane, Rain-Soaked Persian New Year offers English-language readers an engaging introduction to one of contemporary Persian literature’s distinctive voices.
While the diversity of style and narration in the stories of this volume are indicative of Hakimi’s skills as a talented writer, the seeming simplicity of the subject matter of the stories and the assortment of characters from different walks of life are testimony to the complexity of Hakimi’s imagination in creating a multifaceted fictional world…
Like much of immigrant literature, Hakimi’s recent work can be described as hybrid fiction that is rooted in both cultures and simultaneously belongs to both.M. R. Ghanoonparvar, Professor Emeritus of Persian and Comparative Literature at The University of Texas at Austin
