Thursday, February 18, 2010
Aroos-e’-Beed
*Aroos-e’-Beed (Willow’s Bride)*
Collection of Short Stories
Yousef Alikhani

Aroos-e’-Beed is a collection of ten short stories including Pana^h bar
Khoda^ (Alas!), Agha^ye’ Gha^r(Lord of the Cave), Hara^ssa^na (Frightened) ,
Panja’ (Paw), Rotayl (Tarantula), Ja^n Ghorba^n ( Yours Sincerely) ,
Aroos-e’-Beed (Willow’s Bride) , Mordageer (Dead Catcher), Beel Sare’ Agha^
( The Shovel at the Mausoleum) and Pir Bibi.

The same as the two former short story collections by Yousef Alikhani
(“Ghadam Bekheir was my grandma” and “ Killing Dragon”), the stories in this
book happen in a village called Meelak where emigration to the cities has
left it uninhabited and the few remaining elderly are deeply engaged in
their own beliefs and rituals. For this same reason, Alikhani’s stories are
narrated in an illusionary atmosphere.

In these three collections of stories which are considered his trilogy,
Yousef Alikhani employs his storytelling instinct, creates poetic
atmospheres and penetrates deep into the mentality of the people of this
village and their beliefs and ideas and delivers very enjoyable and
thought-provoking stories.

The two former collections were warmly received by the public readership as
well as literary critics and earned prizes and awards for the writer. Due to
Alikhani’s attention to and employment of folklore elements of his birth
place in his stories, critics have nicknamed him “the salmon of Iranian
literature”.

Yousef Alikhani was born in 1975 in one of the villages of Alamoot in
Ghazvin Province. In addition to his three short story collections, he has
also authored a number of fictional biographies of historical and literary
characters such as Hassan Sabbah, Nasser Khosro, Ibn Batuta and Saeb
Tabrizi.

He has also published three research books entitled “ Aziz & Nega^r- A Love
Story Retold”, “ The Third Generation- Interviews with Iranian Writers” and
“Folklore and the Stories of Alamoot People”.

In near future, two new books by Yousef Alikhani, namely “Beevakoshi ya
Jangna^maye’ Haft Shohara^ne’ Kha^beeda Kha^nom with Ajdarma^r-e- Meelaki”
(Widow Killing or the War Account of Seven Husbands of Khabeeda Khanom with
the Meelaki Dragon” , a novel, and the life story of “Vahraz Deilami”,
conqueror of Yemen during the Sassanid will be published.
youssefalikhani AT gmail DOT com