A Stone On A Grave (Bibliotheca Iranica)

Sangi bar Guri ÝA Stone on a Grave¨ is a candid account of a male Iranian, in this case, a well-known essayist, fiction writer and socially and politically engaged intellectual, in his struggle to cope with his inability to produce offspring. In this book, Jalal Al-e Ahmad delves into the recesses of his own psyche to explore the roots of his identity as an Iranian male, his manhood. Consciously, he tries to uncover why having children to continue one's name and legacy, not unlike one's gravestone, should signify that he had existed, and why it should be of concern and importance after one's death. In a sense, he attempts to justify his own inability to have children. But, subconsciously, he reveals aspects of himself and his psyche that he may not have intended to reveal. This volume also includes an in-memoriam essay by the renowned writer and Al-e Ahmad's wife, Simin Daneshvar.