With intense emotion and great literary skill, Farnoosh Moshiri has written one of the most moving novels to come out in years. The story begins with the arrest of a seventeen-year-old girl in the early days of the fundamentalist revolution in Iran. Imprisoned because of her brother"s involvement with leftist politics, she is placed in a makeshift jail, a former bathhouse, in which other women are held captive. With a gripping narrative, Moshiri gives voice
to these prisoners, exploring their torment and struggle, but also their courage and humanity, in the face of tyrants.
"Written with the simple authority of an oral deposition, packing the punch of All Quiet on the Western Front, this is a gripping, harrowing story of personal courage and endurance."
--Booklist (starred review)
"It"s hard to stop reading. . . . Horrible as it is, you don"t want to turn away from the girl"s first-person nightmare. The language in The Bathhouse is simple, the dialogue taut, the tension immediate."
--Houston Chronicle
"[A] gut-wrenching, eye-opening novel. The Bathhouse shows what happens when ideology runs amok. It honors the humanity and sacrifice of the victims."
--Tacoma News Tribune
Farnoosh Moshiri was born into a literary family in Tehran. She earned her M.A. in drama from the University of Iowa, and returned to Iran in 1979. After refusing to sign an agreement to obey the new regime, Moshiri went underground, escaping first to Afghanistan, then India. She eventually graduated from the University of Houston"s creative writing program. Moshiri is also the author of At the Wall of the Almighty. Currently, she teaches at Montgomery College in Houston, Texas.