Prominent writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s novel ‘Thirst’ will be unveiled at Tehran International Book Fair in early May after waiting ten years for the publication permit.
The story is narrated from the views of two authors from the two opposite sides of the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The permit was not issued by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance until recently due to the sensitivity of the issue and the unconventional views the writer expresses about war, ISNA reported on its Persian website.
Although it took ten years for the book to be released, its English translation was published by Melville House Publishing and Bookstore in New York in 2014.
“Thirst is profound, humane and mischievous in its humor, shining light on the madness and the absurdity of war. On a strategic hill overlooking the frontier, Iraqi and Iranian troops battle for access to a water tank. The troops are delirious with thirst and on the brink of madness. They are, moreover, characters in a novel being written by an Iraqi journalist.
That is, if he is given the chance to write it, a chance denied him by an Iraqi major who is in charge of a military prison and who commands the journalist to write a fictitious report about a murder in the camp aimed at demoralizing the enemy soldiers,” Amazon wrote on its website introducing the book of fiction.
“At the same time, on the other side of the border, an Iranian author writes the story of the same squad of soldiers but from an Iranian perspective. He, likewise, is interrupted, not by external forces, but by memories of his first encounter with a gun... told in a kaleidoscopic style that weaves between the ongoing battle and the struggles of the writer,” the introduction continued.
Born in a remote farming region in Sabzevar, Khorasan Razavi Province, Dowlatabadi, 77, spent his early life and teen years as a farm day laborer until he made his way to Tehran. He started acting in theater and began writing plays, stories and novels. He pioneered the use of colloquial language of the Iranian people in his writings.
Tehran-based Cheshmeh Publication will present new editions of Dowlatabadi’s famous books including ‘Missing Soluch’, and Farhang Mo’asser Publication, also in Tehran, will offer the reprint of the ten-volume portrait of Iranian village life ‘Kelidar’ at the fair.
The 31st TIBF will take place at Imam Khomeini Grand Mosalla (Prayer Grounds), May 2-12.
