Sadriddin Aini and The Sands of Oxus

Sadriddin Aini
It could be said that prior to Sadriddin Aini (1878-1954), the history of Tajik literature and the rich history of Persian literature, encompassing famous poets such as Firdawsi, Rumi, and Omar Khayyam, were one and the same. Mutually intelligible regional dialects of Persian existed alongside various minority languages throughout much of present-day Tajikistan, Iran, [...]

Crescent and The Language of Baklava

How are prayer, poetry, and food preparation related? Sufism, Arabic literature, and the culinary arts all contribute to the backdrop of Diana Abu-Jaber’s multifaceted second novel. As I was drawn into Abu-Jaber’s masterfully crafted world, I found myself increasingly aware of the art in the everyday circumstances of life.

Persepolis Film

We recently learned from PowellsBooks.Blog that Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis has been made into a feature-length animated French film. An English version is purported to be on the way. Variety has a review here: Variety review of Persepolis film

Southern Oregon Retreat

We recently retreated for a quick overnight getaway to Southern Oregon, where we stayed in a delightful B&B. The house is straw bale construction, built by artists Dennis Meiners and Leslie Lee. The ambience is refreshing, the hospitality warm, and Penny the resident canine affectionate. We enjoyed discussing alternative construction, books, linguistics, and international travel. [...]

Khaled Hosseini’s New Release

Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns went on sale yesterday (May 22). His Kite Runner was a bestseller and one of our all-time favorites (see our review, posted May 7, ‘07.) We can’t wait to read his new novel, this time about women in Afghanistan.
Visit Hosseini’s site to learn more about the author and his [...]

Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth

Since I’ve been reading so much on birth and parenting in the past six months, I thought I would share some of my findings. Ina May Gaskin is one of the “greats” of contemporary North American midwifery, and her Spiritual Midwifery has become a classic.
As the title suggests, the primary concern of her Guide is [...]

Soul—Russian Writer on Central Asia

Rather than a novel about Central Asia, Soul seems, in reality, to be a mythic novel that happens to be set in Central Asia. Author Andrey Platonov (1899-1951) traveled to Turkmenistan in the 1930s; he was taken with the region and later set the action of this book there.

Iran and America

This post isn’t about a book, but it does include some articles. Brian’s recent post on our Birds’ Words blog concerns ties between Portland, OR, (where we used to live) and Iran. At the bottom are links to two articles I wrote following our 2003 trip to Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz. Click here to view [...]

Translation Posts

Words without Borders has two new posts relating to news in the world of translation:
Click here for: 2007 Pen Translation Fund Awards
Click here for: Comments on 2007 Independent Foreign Fiction Awards
The site also has a number of forums on translation. The discussions took place some time ago, but they are still worthwhile, being intiated [...]

Everyday Islam–Soviet Anthropologist on Central Asia

Our principal reading material is fiction, with some creative (or occasionally uncreative) nonfiction thrown in to keep us feeling responsible and informed. Everday Islam is more of a reference book than “literature,” but we read it (individually) because it concerns one of our other significant interests–Central Asia, and more specifically, Tajikistan.
Everyday Islam is of interest [...]