And what do you know about Mary?

These are the groans of one who is utterly unable, unable in a way that I observe from all sides. Its heroes are the incapable of continuing in an emotional relationship, the unable to face their feelings, the incapable of "creating" what they want if they do not find it, the unable to confront the movement and direction of history, the incapable before the authority of divine will, the unable to live after all this has taken hold of them and dominated them. And amidst this overwhelming wave of incapacity, everything dissolves into the details of daily life and its trivialities. Yet, there is a faint hope of overcoming all this, appearing as a flickering candle dwindling at the end of the journey; as if a person needs to "become" a creature of a special composition — like amphibians! — in order to achieve this transcendence, which has no alternative but complete destruction! In this collection of stories, the organic unity of Mustafa Mastour's world is revealed; through dense intertextuality of characters and settings, even of poetic verses that document his deep feelings and structural complexity. It is as if the defeat of Iranian society — for those who do not know it — is like a sharp blow indicating what only a skilled, honest writer can perceive early on. A writer who understands the nature of the crisis and knows the way out, yet is unable to reach it due to his society’s incapacity to do so.