Sadeq Hedayat was born in Tehran in 1903, of an aristocratic family, and spent most of his life there. In 1951, during a stay in Paris, Hedayat committed suicide. Recognized as the outstanding Persian writer of the 20th century, Hedayat is generally credited with having brought his country's language and literature into the mainstream of contemporary writing.

This collection, previously unpublished in English, displays all the evocative force of Hedayat's writing, and confirms his place in the literary canon. The title story follows the protagonist's increasingly unstable mental state through the repeated occurrence of three drops of blood, while 'Hajji Morad' depicts an almost Joycean epiphany in classically understated terms, as a man mistakes another woman for his wife. Written before the revolution of 1979, Hedayat's stories were banned by the Tehran authorities in 2006. Addressing themes such as marriage and divorce customs and the displacement of Iran's ancient Zoroastrian faith, they have acquired a new relevance in recent decades.

The father of modern Persian short stories.