TEHRAN – “Gun Love”, a novel by American-Mexican author Jennifer Clement, has been published in Persian.

Michka Sarmadi is the translator of the book published by Cheshmeh.

Fourteen-year-old Pearl France lives in the front seat of a broken-down car and her mother Margot lives in the back. Together they survive on a diet of powdered milk and bug spray, love songs and stolen cigarettes.

Life on the edge of a Florida trailer park is strange enough, but when Pastor Rex’s “Guns for God” program brings Eli Redmond to town Pearl’s world is upended.

Eli pays regular visits to Margot in the back seat, forcing Pearl to find a world beyond the car. Margot is given a gift by Eli, a gun of her own, just like he’s given her flowers. It sits under the driver’s seat, a dark presence.

“Gun Love” is a hypnotic story of family, community and violence. Told from the perspective of a sharp-eyed teenager, it exposes America’s love affair with firearms and its painful consequences.

Clement is the president of PEN International and the first woman to be elected since the organization was founded in 1921. 

She grew up in Mexico City, Mexico. She studied English literature and anthropology at New York University and also studied French literature in Paris, France. She has an MFA from the University of Southern Maine.

Clement is the author of the novels “Prayers for the Stolen”, “A True Story Based on Lies” and “The Poison That Fascinates”. 

She also wrote the acclaimed memoir “Widow Basquiat” on the painter Jean Michel Basquiat and New York City in the early 1980s. 

Clement is also the author of several books of poetry, including “The Next Stranger”, “Newton’s Sailor”, “Lady of the Broom” and “Jennifer Clement: New and Selected Poems”. 

Her prize-winning story, “A Salamander-Child” is published as an art book with work by the Mexican painter Gustavo Monroy. Her books have been translated into 24 languages.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Jennifer Clement’s novel “Gun Love”.

MMS/YAW