“A contemplative exploration of both inner and external lives.”—Buzzfeed News
“Oh My! I do declare this to be a bona fide masterpiece…stories are unusual, they will blow your mind, they will make you think and they will break your heart.”— Jason Denness, Gnome Appreciation Society
“A mysterious book that will make you re-evaluate your assumptions about Promethean gifts and the promise of knowledge.” — Amy Crider, author of Disorder
“[Mahyar] Amouzegar is one of a kind, layering multiple elements and experiences into a cohesive collection.”— Craig Hayes, Compulsive Reader
“Often dreamlike but rooted in sharp observations of human behavior, Amouzegar has a gift for fully inhabiting his characters and bringing the reader along with him.”—Chuck Augello, Cease, Cows
“One of the year’s most impressive short fiction collections, every story smart and propulsive.”— Largehearted boy
In eight ethereal stories, The Hubris of an Empty Hand encompasses the frailty and complexity of being human. When some divine gifts fall into decidedly earthly hands, the results are almost beyond reckoning for humans and gods both. Through its wide cast of characters and fascinating settings, terrestrial, divine, or somewhere in-between, Mahyar A. Amouzegar's fourth book of fiction takes on timeless questions of love and its permanence, sacrifice, and the human desire to be remembered and known.
"A literary novel about inner turmoil, tender mercies, and all-too-human wavering." —Foreword Reviews
“Full of strangeness, wit and beauty.” —Peter Ocko, Executive Producer, Lodge 49, Pushing Daisies, The Office
“A remarkably tender story of love and commitment, and the shared fictions required to sustain, and deepen, both over a lifetime.” —Benedict Carey, reporter for The New York Times
Amouzegar’s superb storytelling was the book’s most enjoyable aspect for me. While the narrative shifts between Donte and his granddaughter, the shift is easily distinguishable.—OnlineBookClub.com
In Dinner At 10:32, Mahyar A. Amouzegar offers a textured examination of the ambiguity of the most intimate human relationships. Near the end of his life, Donte’s granddaughter asks him a simple question: What are the true origins of his long love affair with his wife? From there, Donte embarks on a reminiscence of their complex love story, along with other romances, friendships, and intrigues that peppered his younger days. As Donte reveals the moments that formed him by sharing stories with his granddaughter, both are led to contemplate memories, truths, secrets, and hope.
"[Pisgah Road] sing with nostalgia and regret, beautifully capturing the narrator's struggles with his own vulnerability. The author's touch is light as his characters deny their feelings, to themselves and to one another, until the right circumstances finally allow them to speak.. A capable portrait of grief, longing, and second chances."— Kirkus Reviews
Set in the small town of Bend Oregon and the megapolis of London, Pisgah Road is a bittersweet story of inner struggle of a man caught in a tumult of love, friendship and his ambivalent sense of duty to his country. Through one man’s eyes, we explore both the strength and fragility of human interaction, as he endeavors to become whole and do good. Spanning the eighties and the nineties, with the ultimate test of his mettle and tangled within a web of espionage, the man confronts his grief and nostalgia, in one final trip to London.
“The reader can feel [the] tormenting conflict with what transpired that dark sunny afternoon in Vietnam. It is a lovely story written with sensitivity.”—Maria KaWah Leung, author Little Heroes of Bay Street: And How They Stay Strong in an Unhappy Home
Set in jungles of Vietnam and a bucolic town in Pennsylvania, A Dark Sunny Afternoon is a psychological drama about Alfonso J. Al-Hakim who continues to be haunted by the accidental killing of an innocent peasant by his own hands decades earlier. The dead man refuses to stay where he has fallen and continues to speak to Alfonso in an earnest voice. Alfonso tries to dismiss the dead man as a figment of his imagination, yet the dead peasant does not leave Alfonso but instead accompanies him as an acquaintance who is relentless and at times overbearing. Twenty years later, Alfonso marries Julia Tench, an independent resolute woman. When they move to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, the move does not bring the solace Alfonso seeks. The dead man insists Alfonso has made an error in his decision. He has to make a choice, to kill the one he loves or kill the one he needs.