Erika Friedl's wonderfully written ethnographic stories on the lives and concerns of women of Deh Koh, a mountainous village some 6 hours drive from Shiraz, combines anthropological mastery with literary prowess. Having lived off and on in Deh Koh for five years, she is intimately familiar with the lives of the women and knows their extended and extensive networks of kinship groups and friends. Friedl is among the few anthropologists who have been to Iran since the revolution of 1979. But we are not told when she was there last. Friedl tries to give the women of Deh Koh a chance to speak for themselves, and to be the true actors in their own "drama of life." Dissatisfied with the "fragmented nature of the insights into women's lives conveyed in the litera- ture," the author attempts "to fill a gap in our understanding of what women themselves make of their positions and how they use their culture, their relationship, and their philosophy to construct their lives and lives of those near them" (p. 6).