Amidst the Iran-Iraq War, two Iraqi soldiers find themselves stationed on an isolated mountain peak with orders to observe the enemy's troop movements. As they watch the brutal destruction brought about by the intelligence they have gathered, their loyalty to their country and each other is tested.

As in all wars, both Iraq and Iran demonized each other as the war raged during the 1980s. In Fortune Told in Blood, written during the mid-1990s as Iran was recovering, Davud Ghaffarzadegan labors to undo the damage caused by this process. The author, an Iranian, writes from...

A dark wizard clad in black unearths and steals the skulls of Beethoven and Michelangelo from their graves. Blood drips from the sharp fangs of a vampire. A criminal division detective, who is trying to solve the puzzle of a murder, faces the Beethoven code. In the midst of all this, a strong muscular man, who has mysteriously lost his memory and is searching for clues to his past, is linked to all these incidents, accompanied by an alluring beautiful girl, a warrior, who fights the enemies with her sharp swords. They eventually realize that a close link exists between these incidents and 58...