The Patience Stone [Hardcover]

Atiq Rahimi (Author), Polly Mclean (Translator), Khaled Hosseini (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 19, 2010

“For far too long, Afghan women have been faceless and voiceless. Until now. With The Patience Stone, Atiq Rahimi gives face and voice to one unforgettable woman–and, one could argue, offers her as a proxy for the grievances of millions…it is a rich read, part allegory, part a tale of retribution, part an exploration of honor, love, sex, marriage, war.  It is without doubt an important and courageous book.” from the introduction by Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns

In Persian folklore, Syngue Sabour is the name of a magical black stone, a patience stone, which absorbs the plight of those who confide in it. It is believed that the day it explodes, after having received too much hardship and pain, will be the day of the Apocalypse. But here, the Syngue Sabour is not a stone but rather a man lying brain-dead with a bullet lodged in his neck. His wife is with him, sitting by his side. But she resents him for having sacrificed her to the war, for never being able to resist the call to arms, for wanting to be a hero, and in the end, after all was said and done, for being incapacitated in a small skirmish. Yet she cares, and she speaks to him. She even talks to him more and more, opening up her deepest desires, pains, and secrets. While in the streets rival factions clash and soldiers are looting and killing around her, she speaks of her life, never knowing if her husband really hears. And it is an extraordinary confession, without restraint, about sex and love and her anger against a man who never understood her, who mistreated her, who never showed her any respect or kindness. Her admission releases the weight of oppression of marital, social, and religious norms, and she leads her story up to the great secret that is unthinkable in a country such as Afghanistan. Winner of the Prix Goncourt, The Patience Stone captures with great courage and spare, poetic, prose the reality of everyday life for an intelligent woman under the oppressive weight of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Rahimi (Earth and Ashes) won the 2008 Prix Goncourt for this brief, melodramatic novel set amid factional violence somewhere in Afghanistan or elsewhere. It follows the circumscribed movements of a Muslim woman largely confined to the house where she nurses her comatose husband, who's been shot by a fellow jihadist. A humorless, inflammatory mullah pays the woman unwelcome visits, and sexually menacing soldiers break into her house. Though such events generate tension and drama, the novel's cultural and historical milieu lacks specificity, and Rahimi may have erred in sketching the story's political context vaguely. For some readers, his intimate attention to objects and spaces may compensate for the grating confessional tenor that develops later, when the narrator divulges damning secrets to her husband's unresponsive body and fulfilling the book's premise a little too obviously by referring to him as her patience stone. McLean's translation is faultless, but the narrator's reminiscences feel stilted; the patience-stone conceit borders on gimmickry; and incidents of a violent or sexual nature seem overdetermined. (Jan.)
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Review

“In spare, unflinching prose, Atiq Rahimi gives us Afghanistan’s terrible legacy in the story of one woman’s suffering. Anyone seeking to understand why Afghanistan is difficult and what decades of violence have done to its people should read this book. Rahimi is a superb guide to a hard and complex land.”—Ambassador Ryan Crocker, former U.S. Envoy to Afghanistan, Ambassador to Pakistan, and Ambassador to Iraq

“The Patience Stone is perfectly written: spare, close to the bone, sometimes bloody, with a constant echo, like a single mistake that repeats itself over and over and over.”—Los Angeles Times

“This story from an Afghan-born author is a powerful one, giving voice to the historically downtrodden Afghan woman…truly an expansive work of literature.”—New York Post

“[A] clever novel…readers get a glimpse of daily life in a country terrorized by conflict and religious fundamentalism. Rahimi paints this picture with nuance and subtlety…[His] sparse prose complements his simple yet powerful storytelling prowess. This unique story is both enthralling and disturbing.”—San Francisco Chronicle

"Rahimi's lyric prose is simple and poetic, and McLean's translation is superb. With an introduction by Khaled Hosseini, this Prix Goncourt-winning book should have a profound impact on the literature of Afghanistan for its brave portrayal of, among other things, an Afghan woman as a sexual being."—Library Journal

“A slender, devastating exploration of one woman’s tormented inner life, which won the 2008 Prix Goncourt...The novel, asserts [Khaled] Hosseini in his glowing introduction, finally gives a complex, nuanced, and savage voice to the grievances of millions.”—Words Without Borders

"In this remarkable book Atiq Rahimi explores ways through which personal and political oppression can be resisted through acts of self-revelation. He reveals to us the violence we are capable of imposing upon ourselves and others both in our personal as well as political and social relations. In a manner all the more effective because of his stark and compact style, Rahimi recreates for us the texture of such violence, its almost intimate brutality as well as its fragility. Just as remarkable is the fact that although the story happens within the context of a particular time and place, the emotions it evokes and relationships it creates have universal implications and could happen to any of us under similar conditions. The Patience Stone is relevant to us exactly because as Rahimi says it takes place ‘Somewhere in Afghanistan or elsewhere.’"—Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and Things I’ve Been Silent About

"With a veiled face and stolen words, a woman keeps silent about her forbidden pain in an Afghanistan marred by men’s foolishness. But when she rediscovers her voice, she overcomes the chaos. Atiq Rahimi tells the story of this woman’s heartbreaking lamentation to awaken our consciences."—Yasmina Khadra, author of The Swallows of Kabul

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Other Press; 1 edition (January 19, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590513444
• ISBN-13: 978-1590513446
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (46 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,954 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and unsettling, December 22, 2009

By 

Live2Cruise "Live2Cruise" (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Patience Stone (Hardcover)

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It was difficult for me to think of a good word to describe this short novel, but "unsettling" seems to capture it. Great works of literature are great because they make us uncomfortable, challenge us, and broaden our horizons. "The Patience Stone" accomplishes this in a surprisingly short, but impactful book. I read through it in one sitting; it was so intense at times I wanted to pull away from it, but couldn't.

It's the story of a nameless Afghan woman who is tending to her husband. He is suffering from a wound he endured, apparently, in one of the ongoing tribal conflicts in the country. He is considered a hero, a soldier of jihad. His wound has left him alive, but silent and unmoving. His wife tends to him and prays for him, but progressively becomes more frustrated with the hopelessness of her situation.

The novel never leaves the room in which the man lies. The setting captures the narrow world of the Afghan woman as she is largely confined to the home. As the woman begins to lose her patience, she starts to confide in her husband as he becomes an embodiment of the legendary patience stone. She gradually unfastens the chains of expectation as she reveals her true thoughts and feelings to her husband for the first time-- sometimes sad, sometimes rageful, and sometimes with surprising secrets that she has kept. The volume of her emotion rises to a powerful crescendo and a climax that is ambiguous and thought-provoking.

The author wastes no words; each sentence is written with grace and precision. It's a powerful novel that seeks to give voice to women in Afghanistan. Very highly recommended.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, metaphorical read, January 2, 2010

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Anna "Anna" (New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Patience Stone (Hardcover)

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I'm struck by two things with this short book. The first is that it would be a great book for a women's study class IF it were written by a woman. Unfortunately it is written by a man who is giving us a woman's perspective on one of the most brutal and oppressive societies. In a way, it kind of cheapens the reading experience. The second thing that struck me is that this is a good start for getting alternative voices heard in the publishing world. We need more literature like this from places like Afghanistan. I'm reminded of the writings that coincided with womens suffrage in the US begining in the 1800's, and the writings that came out of the sexual revolution in the 1960's (not that I embrace a lot of this later literature!)

If you like metaphorical writing, The Patience Stone is your treasure trove. Some of the symbolism was easy to catch, other things I could only guess at. It is so easy to see this produced as a play, but the subject matter is almost too disturbing to be experienced in anywhere other than your favorite place to read.

It is well worth the read for anyone who wants to be there as a pebble is dropped into a pond. If women are given a chance at freedom in Afghanistan, a tempest will arise that the world has not seen the likes of in a long while. This is perhaps a reason why the women are so oppressed...the oppressors fear reprisal.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is made for a great play for broadway/westend, December 18, 2009

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Sincerely Yours - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Patience Stone (Hardcover)

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Could so little be said and yet you have lived a life time after reading this slim book? Wow, what amazing story telling, where the author kept the props very simple and everything was focused on what the woman revealed to us through her daily and repetitive routine, her conversation with her husband (who for all we know was paralysed by a flying bullet) and the background noise from the war. very powerful portrayal of life in a war torn city, religious observations, suppression of women's rights; more importantly, the explosion of emotions, guilt of past and present actions that came pouring out of the woman in a coherent and chronological order of her life. To do to stay alive and an ending you just could not believe: I jumped out of my skin. Gutsy and powerful.