Telepeer

His Iranian grandma told him stories. Now Kiyash Monsef’s written ‘Once There Was’

April 13, 2023

When Kiyash Monsef was a child, his grandmother, who had come to the United States from Iran, would tell him stories that began with the phrase, “Yeki bud, yeki nabud” – an invocation that translates as “once was, once wasn’t.”

On a recent video call, the San Francisco Bay Area-based author talked about the phrase and its impact upon his first novel, fittingly titled “Once There Was.”

“When I was a little kid, that phrase by itself, regardless of what came after it, that phrase would kind of blow my mind,” Monsef says of the traditional opening to Persian fairy tales. “It was this almost existential tone. Is it or isn’t it?”

He adds, “It’s an amazing place to receive a story because you’re open to anything at that point.”

That’s the feeling that Monsef wanted to bring to his debut novel. In “Once There Was,” Marjan is a seemingly ordinary California teenager who, following the death of her father, inherits his veterinary office and learns that the family’s legacy is quite extraordinary.

With her father gone, she’s tasked with healing creatures thought to exist only in fairy tales while trying to solve the mystery of her dad’s death. Throughout the novel, Monsef has interspersed short stories in the style of fairy tales, each of which will guide Marjan as she encounters a new challenge.

Nearly a decade ago, Monsef began writing a series of connected short stories about fantastic creatures. The first was about a griffon, which at that point he viewed as a “heraldic, very classic sign of British nobility.”

But as he began his research, he learned that the oldest representation of this creature was found on a rug in a cave that, while not located in the Iran of today, was within the lands of the Iranic people.

“Then you come a little bit more recent and you start to see griffons are stone statues and ornaments all over ancient Persia,” he explains. “The Greeks took it from there and they brought this idea of this creature to Greece and then from there it’s become this Western heraldic symbol.”

That wasn’t the only connection that Monsef uncovered while researching the book.

“I started to discover that a lot of these creatures that are very iconic within Western lore and mythology have these origins that either come from Ancient Persia or traveled through Ancient Persia,” he says.

In one of Monsef’s short stories, “The Falconer and the Shah,” a falconer with the ability to heal creatures from all over the world explains to the Shah, “It is fortunate that our borders touch so many others. It is fortunate that the greatest roads in the world run through the heart of our land.”

It’s a line that speaks to the meeting point of the many cultures that existed in the region and intersected with each other, even going back to antiquity.

“I’ve been doing a fair amount of research about these really old stories that inspired the stories that I wrote and are inspiring things that I’m writing now,” says Monsef. “At a certain point, the origins get very muddled because there was so much interplay between these different cultures, what was going on in India and what was going on in Iran. Everything has been passed back and forth in that region for a long time.”

As Monsef saw the growing connections to Iran in his research, the overarching story within “Once There Was” began to take shape.

“I started to approach this idea that maybe I do have a story to tell about the experience of growing up in America with American culture inputs and social inputs, but having this other side to my upbringing that I wasn’t sure how to integrate into my identity for a very long time,” he explains.

Fittingly, the short stories that are woven into the plot of “Once There Was” are presented as fairy tales passed down to Marjan by her father, who was born in Iran.

Books |

A trip to Yosemite led to a fresh look at John Muir in ‘Guardians of the Valley’

Books |

How John Sayles transformed ‘Jamie MacGillivray’ into an epic historical novel

Books |

This week’s bestsellers at Southern California’s independent bookstores

Books |

The Book Pages: Bookstores! Bookstores! Bookstores!

Books |

15 must-read books coming from S.A. Cosby, Luis Alberto Urrea, Ivy Pochoda

Much like tales told throughout human history, Monsef’s stories also relay greater messages about society and caring for the world around us, all of which also reflect the book’s major plot points.

“I wrote this over a long period of time. I would say that I definitely put my heart into it, in terms of my feelings about the world,” says Monsef.

And without spoiling a plot that’s full of twists, there are some parallels to contemporary issues.

“There’s a villain who has a monomaniacal belief that he can solve the world’s problems, no matter what the cost,” says Monsef. “There are also a metaphor about accumulation of wealth and resources and what the consequences of that might be.”

Currently, Monsef is writing a follow-up to “Once There Was,” which he says will have many of the same characters and is set in the same world.

“I have hesitated to call it a sequel, though it does take place after this one,” he says. “I’m trying to write something that’s self-contained because I personally have a hard time sticking with series. I think that readers deserve to have a complete experience with the story with every book that they read, so that’s what I’m trying to do.”

Orange County Register

News Details

His Iranian grandma told him stories. Now Kiyash Monsef’s written ‘Once There Was’

Related Articles

News

CONTACT INFO

QUICK LINKS

SERVICES

CURRENT NEWS