Books by Manoucher Parvin

"Alethophobia" revolves around the life of the Iranian-born Professor Pirooz who lives mostly in his own imagination; he is everywhere and yet he is nowhere. He dissimulates and dissimulates, yet loses control of himself and speaks his mind -- in spite of his efforts -- at all costs. He is a whistle blower with a broken whistle and a broken heart and a broken existence. What is the use of being a Professor if you cannot profess and, worse yet, have to pay lip service to academic freedom in order not to be marginalised? "Alethophobia" is eventful, witty and insightful. It is a real story that appears as surreal. How could such events occur on a tranquil university campus in America? How could the love of a gorgeous policewoman and a wondering scientist take root and blossom in such inhospitable soil? The story has many stunning turns and twists inducing laughter and tears.

"Avicenna and I" is a love saga spanning here and the hereafter; it is a journey of spirits toward immortality. Together two lovers explore the city of Hamadan in north-west of Iran, one of the oldest residences of civilisation, where the tomb of one of history''s most remarkable thinkers, Avicenna, lies. To ascend from what they are to what they dream to be, the lovers seek and find the spirit of Avicenna. From him-the prince of medicine and the leading wise man-they learn how to heal the body, the mind, the spirit and even love, and how to tend to a wounded nature. They discover the path to immortality. "Avicenna and I" strips history naked of its pretensions and shatters the myth of the East as a place of unreason-deserving to be subjugated by the West -- and establishes that the Italian Renaissance was merely a continuation of the Persian Renaissance which occurred in the Golden Era of Avicenna. In this unforgettable novel the future and the past recreate one another and set the present afire with passion for immortal wisdom, and immortal love and truth. The reader is invited to view the mind and the universe, intuition and reason, science and faith, and life and death with a profoundly new understanding. The trials and tribulations of the characters, even history, on their transcendental journey are recounted with a pen searching for the beginning and the end of everything -- for the answers God never created. So humans must invent the answers as we have invented many things God did not create. This novel is a chapter in the book of answers.