Parsnips in Love by Porochista Khakpour: book review

Parsnips in Love (2019) is a novella set in rural Iran.

An ageing farmer finds an unusual parsnip in his field—“the most beautiful object he had ever beheld.” It reminded him of his wife. It was actually two parsnips entwined and tangled together. It reminded him of lovers’ embracing. Parsnips in love!

But now that it was unearthed, he knew it would eventually decompose and disappear. Nevertheless, he keeps it, in secret, in a drawer in his house. But his wife, and Hamid the farm assistant, knew something strange was happening—the farmer was not himself anymore. Maybe he was depressed.

Eventually, the farmer decides to tell the world about his beautiful parsnips in love—via social media. Then his life changes. All because of people’s desire to know about the parsnips in love.

“We are all beautiful when we are young.”

This is a short, unusual, beautiful love story.

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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