A review by stefhyena
The Book of Fate by Parinoush Saniee

5.0

A genuinely and relentlessly tragic book. Massoumeh never gets what she wants. She is always blocked by her family- parents, brothers, husband and finally her adult children. She explains in the text that they are wonderful, kind and sensitive but what she shows is the opposite- selfish and judgemental. Massoumeh is exploited in various ways, even admired but never loved. It seems a couple of people in the book (three if you count Parvanah) are capable of loving her, but always she is forcibly divided from them for the sake of selfish, unworthy family. The family who ask this sacrifice from her themselves offer nothing in return not even particular virtue. In that sense I suppose it is a text of terror although apart from a really horrible beating early in the book she is mostly physically looked after.

The sadness in the book is quite complex as is the place of religion and politics. The politics is bleak and I would hope not the whole story. I would like to see what else the author has written especially if it is less depressing