Siamak Vossoughis quiet but powerful stories capture the intricacy and profundity of the Iranian American experience. His characters are people just like us struggling to make sense of an often confusing world. Their inherent decency, delicacy of feeling, and desire for understanding are what defines them and what makes this big-hearted collection so special. Better Than War marks the debut of a thoughtful and important new literary voice. -- Anita Amirrezvani * author, The Blood of Flowers and Equal of the Sun * Siamak Vossoughis stories reveal an unjaded sense of wonder, which I have not witnessed in any writer since William Saroyan. The figures in these beautifully nuanced fictions seamlessly come together to touch the pressure points of our consciences. As such, the characters here act to better our ethical impulses and open our eyes to the possible goodnesses in the world. Vossoughis compassionately realized appeal is to make vulnerable our communities--Iranian, American, and others: all of whom deserve every moment of life before them, knowing somewhere that each of them is better than war, and not needing any vision of war to remind them. -- Benjamin Hollander * author of In the House Un-American * Vossoughi is a writer with a lot to say, a voice we should listen to, because we might just learn something about what it means to live in a world where war is so commonplace, yet rarely takes place on American soil. . . These are stories that will stay with you, long after you have finished the last page. -- Shadia Savo * Fourteen Hills *
