Ali Alizadeh

Jeanne is a young woman from rural France. She's a knight who wears men's clothing. The English call her Joan of Arc. Jeanne has led France to victory in epic battles. She hears ghostly voices and has unspeakable desires. The English want to burn her. Her king has abandoned her. Her heart has been broken. Her heart cannot be burnt....

Towards the End presents the contemporary world as broken and dying, a world that is moving irreversibly towards collapse as well as rebirth. The collection begins with the speaker's disillusionment with the ideals of capitalism and the ironic realisation that happiness and prosperity may no longer be attainable. The middle section of the collection reflects, with dark humour and controlled...

A vanished, tattered black and white photograph, taken in Tehran in 1946. The image of a sombre and inscrutable middle-aged man called Salman Fuladvand, a lieutenant and controversial police chief under Iran's second last king. It is the memory of this photograph that begins Ali Alizadeh's story of his grandfather Salman's life, spanning Salman's youthful devotion to the advancement of...