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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.
"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
"Starred Review. Rahimi's lyric prose is simple and poetic, and McLean's translation is superb ... 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
"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." - The Los Angeles Times
"Despite its modest size this story from an Afghan-born author is
a powerful one....Though only set in one room,
this is truly an expansive work of literature." - New York Post
"Rahimi, who teaches at the University of Kabul and is currently busy setting up a writers' centre and publishing house there, succeeds in his masterfully crafted novel in drawing the reader into the fortunes of a country wracked by war, atrocities and underdevelopment. We follow the story with bated breath to the very last word." - The American Muslim
"Rahimi's sparse prose complements his simple yet powerful storytelling prowess. This unique story is both enthralling and disturbing." - The Associated Press
"McLean's translation is faultless, but the narrator's reminiscences feel stilted...." - Publishers Weekly
This information about The Patience Stone was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Atiq Rahimi was born in Kabul in 1962. He was seventeen years old when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. He fled to Pakistan during the war and was eventually granted political asylum in France in 1984.
Rahimi joined a Paris-based production company where he produced seven documentaries for French television, as well as several commercials. After the fall of the Taliban in 2002, Rahimi returned to Afghanistan, where he filmed an adaptation of his novella Earth and Ashes (Other Press). He has become renowned as a maker of documentary and feature films, as well as a writer. The film of Earth and Ashes was in the Official Selection at Cannes in 2004 and won several prizes. Since 2002 Rahimi has returned to Afghanistan a number of times to set up a Writers' House in Kabul. His novel The ...
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