Bathhouse, The [Hardcover]

Farnoosh Moshiri (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2010

During the fundamentalist revolution in Iran, a 17-year-old girl is arrested by the Revolutionary Guards. She is not political, but her brother and sister-n-law are, so she is suspect too. She is confined in a former bathhouse with several other women ranging in age from adolescence to elderly, whose mental states vary from the stoic and care-giving to the insane. Based on interviews with several Iranian women who had been imprisoned in such a bathhouse, this novel documents the torment they endured and honors their humanity and courage. Winner of the 2001 Black Heron Press Award for Social Fiction.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Like the young male protagonist of Moshiri's big first novel, At the Wall of the Almighty [BKL F 15 00], the 17-year-old high-school graduate who tells of her time in an old bathhouse used as a prison remains nameless throughout this tersely reportorial short novel. She is arrested, and her home is ransacked one hot August night on account of her brother's involvement with revolutionary leftists in Iran in the early 1980s, when Khomeini's Shiite revolution became more resolutely authoritarian. Taken to the bathhouse, she suffers her first humiliation when her period starts and no one will get her a tampon. She is put in a cell with several others--the pregnant wife of a leftist, a professor and her aged mother, the mother of a young rebel, a surgeon, a younger teenager, and a madwoman--and let out only to be interrogated and tortured, to go to the toilet, or to shower once a week. One by one, her companions are taken away for good. At last, she gets new cellmates, female leftist guerrillas, with whom she suffers further torture and is nearly executed. Released at last, she collapses on a street bench, and her period starts again. Written with the simple authority of an oral deposition, packing the punch of All Quiet on the Western Front, this is both a resolutely nonpartisan antirevolutionary brief and a gripping, harrowing story of personal courage and endurance. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"[Having] the simple authority of an oral deposition, this is...a gripping, harrowing story of personal courage and endurance." -- Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 182 pages
• Publisher: Black Heron Press; 1 edition (January 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930773624
• ISBN-13: 978-0930773625
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,787,069 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Iranian born writer Farnoosh Moshiri has degrees from the College of Dramatic Arts of Tehran, The University of Iowa, and University of Houston. She has published plays, short stories, and translations in Iranian literary magazines before the 1979 revolution and in anthologies published outside Iran in the 1980s. In 1983, she fled her country after a massive arrest of secular intellectuals, feminists, and political activists. She lived in refugee camps of Afghanistan and India for four years before emigrating to the U.S. in 1987. Her novels and collections include At the Wall of Almighty (Interlink 1999), The Bathhouse (Black Heron Press 2001, Beacon Press, 2002); The Crazy Dervish and the Pomegranate Tree (Black Heron Press 2004), and Against Gravity (Penguin, 2006). Among other awards and fellowships, she is the recipient of Florida' Review's creative non-fiction award, Barthelme Memorial Award, Barbara Deming Award: A grant to feminist writers whose work speaks of peace and social justice; two consecutive Black Heron Awards for Social Fiction, and Valiente Award from Voices Breaking Boundaries. Her recent novel, Against Gravity, was chosen by Barnes and Noble for Discover New Writers Series and by Borders Books in January Original Voices selection. The Bathhouse, her second novel, has been translated into several European and Asian languages. She has taught literature, playwriting, and creative writing in Universities of Tehran, Kabul, Houston, and Syracuse. Currently, she lives in Houston, where she works on her new novel and teaches creative writing.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book you want to read in one sitting!, April 21, 2004

By 

Retired musician (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bathhouse: A Novel (Bluestreak) (Paperback)

Once in a while a book comes along that you start to read and you can't put down until you finish reading it. This is one such book. The naive school girl who is taken to a horrible political prison starts out as any young, innocent and naive teenager who is not interested or involved in politics. But once there, she witnesses and experiences what is happening to political prisoners, in this case women prisoners, behind the prison walls all in the name of God and all because they do not agree with the ideology of the ruling class. This is not a story limited to a country or conflict. It is a universal story that can happen, has happened and is happening in many countries. But, Farnoosh Moshiri somehow takes us along with her young protagonist through the events of this book so that it is as if we are experiencing them with her. The writing is powerful yet natural and flowing and you just can't stop reading until the end. And, when you close the book, it is as if you have matured along side the protagonist, all in the short span of a month for her and just hours for you, but the lessons will stay with you for a lifetime. I recommend this book to everyone, especially to young women.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A look into the heart of the matter, October 11, 2004

By 

ckj "cliff" (pensacola, Fl.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bathhouse: A Novel (Bluestreak) (Paperback)

What a fantastic book. Very insightful and informative. What one should take away from this book as well as Mrs. Moshiri's other novel "At The Wall of The Almighty" is how introspective Iranians are about their lives before and after the revolution. I believe that through these books, people in the west can come to a better understanding of this society and culture. We hear so much about war, terrorism, and the development of weapons programs that we overlook that the Iranians have a rich and beautiful culture and so much to offer us in the form of literature.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars When no one is innocent, February 25, 2003

By 

Bob Dunn (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bathhouse, The (Hardcover)

When a teenage girl is arrested by Iranian authorities, it's more like an accidental abduction. Her brother dabbles in politics forbidden by the fundamentalist ruling regime, but the girl is innocent.

Only there is no innocence in The Bathhouse. If you have been apprehended, you must have committed a crime. If you have committed a crime, you must be punished. The girl finds herself in a living hell, where torture is an art form. She - and all those around her - suffers in an accelerating cycle of pain and humiliation limited only by the imagination of her captors. And yet the girl finds, and creates, sparks of humanity in this most ihhuman setting.

The Bathhouse might be an attempt to measure the depths of institutionalized evil. In spite of being forced to contemplate so much unrestrained cruelty and violence, I could not make myself look away. And I could not put this book down until I finished it.