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Woodwind Harmony in the Nighttime, by Reza Ghassemi
Woodwind Harmony in the Nighttime, by Reza Ghassemi
Translated by Michelle Quay
Winner of the inaugural Mo Habib Translation Prize in Persian Literature, Reza Ghassemi’s darkly comic and subtly provocative novel of life among the exiled and expatriated.
Iranian exile Yadollah is barely scraping by in 1990s Paris. He lives in a run-down attic apartment with his friend Seyyed, and his girlfriend Ra’na. It’s an all too common situation—their apartment building houses a cast of eccentric neighbors, most of them fellow down-on-their-luck exiles from all over the world. When a mysterious new neighbor arrives on the scene, a man who ominously goes by the name of Prophet, Yadollah and his friends’ world is turned upside down.
Yadollah suddenly finds himself confronted by the Islamic angels of death, and realizes that he must untangle the mystery of his own murder, which occurred at some unknown point after Prophet’s arrival. Suspenseful, yet darkly humorous, Woodwind Harmony In The Nighttime explores the trauma of displacement, and challenges readers to piece together the story of a life shattered by exile.
Short Stories & Poems
“Forough Farrokhzad and Her Contemporaries on Poetic Craft”, The Kenyon Review special issue on Forough Farrokhzad. Summer Issue. (2025)
“S.G.L.L” (س.گ.ل.ل.), from the Persian of Sadegh Hedayat in Y’alla: A Texan Journal of Middle Eastern Literature, October. (2024)
“The Darkness in the Boots” from the Persian of Bijan Najdi (تاریکی در پوتین) in Consequence Magazine, August. (2022)
“Anahita” from the Persian of Mehrnaz Shirazi-‘Adl, in World Literature Today, January. (2022)
“Dog Rose in the Wind, the Rain, the Earth” (نسترن در باد نسترن در باران…) from the Persian of Farkhondeh Aghaei, in Calico Series #3, Two Lines Press, March. Also appeared in Words Without Borders. (2021)
“Hatred” and “Love Song” from the Persian of Farrokh Tamimi, in Voices of the Diaspora, Green Linden Press, September. (2021)
“A Pool of Nightmares” (استخری پر از کابوس) from the Persian of Bijan Najdi in ANMLY, September. (2020)
“Flamingo #13 of the Caspian Sea” (فلامینگوی شماره ۱۳ از دریای خزر) from the Persian of Rasool Yunan, World Literature Today, July. (2019)
“A Rainy Tuesday,” (سهشنبهی خیس) from the Persian of Bijan Najdi in Asymptote Journal, July. (2019)
“An American Indian in Astara,” (یک سرخپوست در آستارا) from the Persian of Bijan Najdi, in Exchanges: A Journal of Literary Translation, May. (2019)
“My Button Eyes,” (چشمهای دکمهای من) from the Persian of Bijan Najdi, in Cagibi Literary Journal, January. (2019)
“Eyes of Narcissi,” from the Arabic of al-Ṣanawbarī, in The Language of Flowers: Poems, ed. Jane Holloway, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. October. (2017)
Works In Progress
“The Girl with the Moon Brow,” translated from the Persian of Ahmad Shamlu (ماهپیشانی) in Cinderella Stories from Around the World, ed. Newell Ann Van Auken and Laura Nüffer. (In Progress)
“Olympia and the Mirrorball,” translated from the Persian of Mona Mirzaei (المپیا و توپ آیینهای) (In submission)
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