Under the Waves: The Many Lives of Moniru Ravanipur's The Drowned

Extract

In 1989, the acclaimed Iranian novelist Moniru Ravanipur (b. 1954) sent ripples through her homeland with a book that spoke out about the plight of a remote village, fighting for survival in the face of the country's rapid modernization. Ahl-egharq, or The Drowned, tells the story of the author's birthplace, Jofreh, on the Persian Gulf; an isolated village where life is shaped by myth-telling, rituals, and a reliance on the sea. The 2019 publication of Ravanipur's novel in English translation gives occasion to critically reflect on its place in the canon of modern Persian fiction.