A Thousand Knots

The short story collection A Thousand Knots includes twelve short stories by the young author Maryam Ferdowsi, with titles such as: Quarantine, Wordplay, Nazanin’s Dusty Eyes, My Star, Footprint, A Thousand Knots, Blood Price, Believe Me, It Is Not a Legend!, A Few Sheep Plus One, The Silent Star, and Count One… Count Two. The story “My Star” begins like this: Why don’t you want me to tell your story? Should I talk about you? Why? It must be because of the missed dawn prayers for a week. Or maybe because I went to the park with Mohsen Khaleh. I wanted to deny it but couldn’t. Samira was also there. You witnessed it yourself. It wasn’t my fault. I… never mind. Honestly, I am a lousy person who foolishly got involved in this. I had said I was not cut out for it. It was Mansoureh’s insistence. It is Mansoureh’s fault. It’s Haj Agha’s fault. It’s your fault that you made me cry. That you bound me. That you came into my life in such a way that I thought I was a person too. But it was an illusion. A sweet illusion!