The Shadeless Border

Literary Hub has published an excerpt from The Shadeless Border, a new novel by Jiyar Jahan Fard, translated by Chiya Parvizpur and published by Common Notions. The passage is narrated by a landmine planted along the Iran-Iraq border near Khanaqin, which maims a horse attempting to cross into Iran, then listens as the wounded animal recalls carrying two siblings, Barzoo and Shirin, across that same border years earlier. The horse's memory turns to Shirin, whose brother ultimately promised her away in marriage to a man named Sayeh rather than bringing her home as planned. It's a bleak, unconventional meditation on borders and war, told from the perspective of the weapon itself.

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