Parastoo is a haunting collection of stories and poems tracing emotional contour lines between post-revolutionary Iran and the U.S., Canada and Europe, between fundamentalist theocracy in a beloved country and isolation in a foreign consumer society. Illuminated by keen understanding of human tragedy and resilience, Parastoo echoes with the sorrow of exile yet offers the tender promise of rejuvenation.

"Those were the days when horror and fear wandered everywhere like living creatures, yet I was happy. Perhaps simply because my children were at home, my husband was at work, and no danger threatened us." - from Someone Behind the Door

"That's the day the house will be ours, and you will plant vegetables and flowers in the garden. And I'll finish school, get a good job. Ramin will start university, and you'll write poetry again." - from Deliriously Happy

Mehri Yalfani was born in Hamadan, Iran. She graduated from the University of Tehran with a degree in electrical engineering and worked as an engineer for twenty years. She immigrated to Canada in 1987 with her family, and has been writing and publishing ever since. Four novels and two collections of short stories written in Farsi, her mother language, were published in Sweden, the U.S. and Canada. Her novel, Dancing In A Broken Mirror, published in Iran, was a finalist for the "Book of the Year" in 2000. She has published several books in English, including Parastoo: Stories and Poems (1995); Two Sisters (2000); and Afsaneh's Moon (2002). A Farsi version of Afsaneh's Moon was published in Iran in 2004. A volume of poetry in Farsi, Rahavard, was also published in 2004. Her short fiction has appeared in a number of American and Canadian anthologies. Her most recent collection of short fiction, The Street of Butterflies, was published in 2017. She lives and writes in Toronto.

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