Dare the Sea, the debut English short story collection by Iranian American novelist Ali Hosseini, was published by the Northwestern University Press in 2023. The collection is divided into two parts and features twenty-two stories offering a diverse range of narratives. It delicately captures the nuanced lives of ordinary Iranians—lives marked by simplicity, honesty, a religious devotion, superstition, taking risks and exploring new environments. The first part mostly centres on everyday life in Iran’s southern Fars province—Hosseini’s homeland—during the final years of the Shah’s reign and the early days of the Islamic Revolution. The second part shifts focus to the Iranian diaspora, portraying expatriates grappling with displacement and a sense of partial belonging in their chosen lands and temptations to return home.
Although each story of the collection stands on its own with a unique set of characters, there are subtle threads that link them together. It is not only reappearing characters but also recurring themes and settings that create a sense of interconnectedness among the stories. Shahpourian brothers with their symbolic surname (literally meaning sons of the King) and their horse centre, at Bajgah, a village near Shiraz, act as the most common thread.
Throughout the collection we read about Shahpourian brothers’ business, their reputation, their cousin, an employee of theirs and finally about their own fate in passing. The horse centre, admired for its beauty and symbolising Iran’s mythological and epic history, and the brothers’ reputation for kindness and exceptional horse breeding, serve as more than just a backdrop. It is rather “the story within stories” which unfolds in metonymic resonance with the fate of the rulers of the time.
Beyond the socio-political overtones and shared settings that serve as a solid framework for dividing the short stories into two distinct parts, a subtle yet persistent theme of tradition versus modernity runs throughout the collection. The first-part stories, set in Iran, largely portray individuals grappling with challenges that are not sustainably resolved but instead radically accepted, often through the lens of traditional, religious, or superstitious beliefs. For example, the buildup of sewage throughout the town is explained as a consequence of blasphemy and unfaithfulness, while the fatal collapse of a trench wall—during an attempt to construct a brick kiln—is attributed to disturbed spirits.
This old hill is full of spirits – it’s a sacred place. Look at all the bones and broken pottery we dug out. Maybe jinns live here and we shouldn’t have disturbed them [..] We shouldn’t have desecrated this place either. Do you hear the wind? […] It’s the hill moaning. (p. 19)
In another story a woman is believed to be “special” and blessed because while queuing up to get kerosene at the time of fuel shortage during Ira-Iraq war, she suddenly notices that her bucket is full. People start congratulating her and kissing her hand believing that a miracle has happened. In these stories, the tension often resolves in favor of tradition highlighting values such as naivety, betrayed trust, resistance to change, religious faith, and superstition.
The “diaspora” stories in the second part of the book are imbued with a strong sense of nostalgia and self-doubt. These narratives delve into the characters’ challenges in adapting to new environments and cultures, while also confronting the complexities of modern life—ranging from technology and women’s rights to parenthood and contemporary relationships.
The problem, he thought, is that women like his wife don’t know what to do with all the freedom. They get together and talk. “Oh, how could you put up with him?” one would say, and she then would answer her own question. “I wouldn’t – I didn’t. that’s why I left him.” And if they have American friends – some on their second, third, or even fourth husbands – they hear all about women’s rights, and we see the result of all that. They find out that the law is on their side, that here children belong to their mothers, the opposite of back home. Then the lambs of the old country become lions here. (p. 122)
Whether it is the pressure of a modern society, or a void resulting from absent traditions, the battle with modernity is portrayed as a multi-faceted one. Unlike the characters in the first part, who often interpret their struggles through superstition and inherited beliefs, these figures find solace in the quiet strength of cultural inheritance (especially the Persian literature) and the courage to face difficult truths despite the strong senses of nostalgia, melancholy and regret that pervade their lives.
The collection’s rich symbolism—particularly the recurring images of horses and the sea—and its profound nostalgia resonate with Iranian readers, while providing non-Iranian audiences with a unique opportunity to gain insight into the contemporary Iranian mindset albeit a non-exhaustive one. Hosseini’s portrayals of pre-revolution village life and city life following the revolution are finely nuanced reflecting the socio-political fabric of Iranian society. In contrast, stories set in more recent times convey a sense of experiential rupture, revealing a diminished ability to capture the contemporary zeitgeist—a limitation that may stem from the author’s decades-long life in diaspora, if not self-exile.
Ali Hosseini’s tone is notably friendly and inviting, marked by a modest, unpretentious style. His descriptions are vivid and detailed, yet never excessive. They enrich the narrative without overwhelming it, maintaining a careful balance that keeps the reader engaged despite the fact that stories vary in impact with some outstanding the others.
Some of the stories in this newly published English collection first appeared years ago in American journals (such as Guernica, Story Quarterly, American Letters and Commentary, etc.) and were published in Persian as parts of story collections. While the author has made slight changes in titles, language and structure, the core plots and narratives remain largely unchanged.
Ali Hosseini was born in Marvdasht, Fars province, in 1955 and moved to the US in 1975 as a university student. He has published three short story collections in Persian, namely, Ja be Ja (Displaced), self-published in 1997, USA; Sayeh va Shen (Sand and Shade), Nim Negah in 2003, Tehran; and Avaz-e Jan-e Maryam (Sweet Maryam), Qoqnoos in 2007, in Tehran; and a novel in Persian, Sangriz (Pebble), Navid in 1998, Shiraz.
His novels in English include The Lemon Grove (Northwestern University Press, 2012) and The Place of Stones (Northwestern University Press, 2017) with the latter a finalist for the 2018 John Gardner Fiction Prize awarded by Binghamton University’s Creative Writing Program through the Binghamton Center for Writers. Both novels explore themes of love, family responsibility and dynamics against the backdrop of the Islamic Revolution or the Iran-Iraq War depicting the complicated ways in which the social and political developments affect the lives of the people re-directing journeys in their lives.
References
Ali Hosseini. Ali Hosseini: Official Website. Accessed May 25, 2025. https://www.alihosseini.com/
Hosseini, Ali. Avaz-e Jan-e Maryam (Sweet Maryam). Tehran: Qoqnoos, 2007.
Hosseini, Ali. Dare the Sea. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2023.
“John Gardner Fiction Book Award Past Winners – English, General Literature and Rhetoric.” Binghamton University. Accessed June 1, 2025. https://www.binghamton.edu/english/awards/john-gardner/past-winners.html
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