When she was a teenager, she thought her grandmother Golzar was a liar, burning with regret over not having a husband or an education. More than a liar, she saw her as a madwoman who talked to the photo of her late husband every day and flirted with it. Her battle with Golzar continued-until she became a young woman and found herself in love with a painter who had gone off to serve in the military, leaving her with nothing but a photo of him in uniform. That's when she began to understand and admire the old woman's magical tales about the boundless love her husband Hekmat had for her. Those "lies" were the passion and yearning of a lover in a culture where women aren't even allowed to speak of love, let alone experience it. Through her stories, Golzar redefined herself, blending imagination into reality. She shattered traditional expectations of female passivity, found a way to get what she wanted from life, and ultimately passed that power on to the generations after her. My Husband, My Feather Pillow, by Fatemeh Zarei, is a literary and semi-autobiographical novel that celebrates the raw, unfiltered life and humor of an illiterate yet extraordinary storyteller. With all her contradictions and beauty, Golzar guides her granddaughter in writing this narrative.