At the Wall of the Almighty

by Farnoosh Moshiri

Book Overview

"I know that I'm in the hallways of El-Deen, the central prison of the Holy Republic, and I know that this guard is taking me from my solitary confinement -- the Black Box -- to cell number four, cell of the Unbreakables. But this is all I know..." So begins our hero's narration. But Loony Kamal, the prison guard, doesn't believe him. Is it really possible for a man to forget who he is? To lose every shred of memory? Loony Kamal is bent on finding...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566563151
• ISBN13: 9781566563154
• Release Date: December 1990
• Publisher: Interlink Books
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

"At the Wall of the Almighty"

Farnoosh Moshiri has done a superb job in imparting the inhuman ambience of an institutionally sanctioned abyss. This abyss is a political prison. The writer so masterfully imparts the latent human capacity for both heroism and sheer cruelty. This abyss is not intended merely for incarceration. The sponsors wish to destroy the human capacity for truth and justice. Their mission: the breaking of the human spirit. They fail miserably. Moshiri's "unbreakables" win at the end. Their bodies shrink from the pain of torture but their souls shine blinding us the shamed spectators. The episodes narrated in this book defy objectivity since they seem so incredible. Grim and unthinkable realities must be conveyed with skillful subtlety and simplicity as we the mortal onlookers may be faint at heart. We need great fiction. We need to be reminded in a coaxing way that cannibalism still exists all over the world albeit in disguised forms. The implied setting is coincidental. I congratulate the writer and recommend this book to anyone who cares about human rights.

"And I would that my tongue could utter, The thoughts ..."

Reading this book makes you realize that Joseph Conrad's Mr. Kurtz did not have a clue when he whispered, "The horror! The horror!" This work easily eclipses Puig's "Kiss of the Spider Woman," Bharadwaj's "Closet Land," and Kafka's "The Trial," and "Metamorphosis." The incredible interplay between the ever changing, metamorphosing "good" and "evil" characters, the horrifying themes, the nightmarish and disturbing images, the heroic struggle to overcome, to make sense, to drive meaning out of misery ... This book will leave you awe struck. Wagner would have been proud to have collaborated with this modern-day, existential, Persian Shahrazad to compose an opera based on her work.Write more, Ms. Moshiri. Please write more.

A Mahler Symphony in words

Mahler once said:"A Symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything." His symphonies take you deep into the world of his imagination specially his childhood memories. But they always bring the listener back to the tragic real world. Moshiri's novel is a Mahler symphony in words not in notes. Her anonymous hero takes you to faraway places in his imagination and childhood memories, but brings you back to the Orwellian real world of a 21st century Inquisition.

A Richly Rewarding Journey

At first, the book is almost difficult to read because the tale of "the unbreakable one" being in prison is so bleak and depressing but as he descends further into this physical hell the author also takes us into the mind of this nameless character who descends into his own world of memories in order to survive. It's this dichotomy of the horror of prison and the beauty that still survives in his mind that captivates the reader and draws us into the story. It's a wonderful tribute to the power of imagination and to the strength of independent thought in the face of fanacticism. The last few chapters are especially moving and rewarding. After I closed the book I found myself sitting silently for a while in quiet awe of the author's masterful ability to take me on such a satisfying journey.

I could not put it down until I read the last page

Beautiful and horrible, as haunting as it is disturbing, Farnoosh Moshiri's At the Wall of the Almighty takes us through a prison in a land where religion has become law. The political prisoner narrates us through a chilling rapport with Looney Kamal, his guard and torturer. At the same time he is sifting through memories of family, passion and capture in a desperate attempt to remember and cling to who and what he is. Moshiri's poetical prose weaves memories and characters together, unravels the threads, then draws them together again with unsettling shrewdness.