This book contains 16 realistic short stories in Persian by Homa Katouzian. The subjects are all contemporary and reflect the socio-political situation of present Iranian society. Some of them may be described as satirical as well as realistic, and all of them touch on various aspects of recent Iranian history.

Most of the stories have real counterparts, although this varies from one story to the other; and of course, none of them is a pure reportage of a real event. They generally reflect what has been going on in Iran since the onset of the movements in the 1970s - ranging from the Islamist to the Maoist and other Marxist-Leninist movements - which led to the revolution of February 1979. They thus make up a fictional history of recent and current Iran in its various aspects.

Dr Homa Katouzian (University of Oxford) is a writer, poet, literary critic, historian and economist. His numerous publications in English include, "Sadeq Hedayat, the Life and Legend of an Iranian Writer", "Sa'di, the Poet of Love, Life and Compassion", and "The Persians: ancient, mediaeval and modern Iran".