Although young people are mostly engaged in computers and the Internet, celebrated Iranian writer Mahmoud Dowlatabadi says he is unwilling to publish his books online, since the status of digital books in Iran is “chaotic.”
Dowlatabadi said as long as Iran does not join the International Copyright Convention, “there is no hope to improve the current situation,” IBNA reported.
Born in 1940 in Sabzevar, Iran, Dowlatabadi is a master in combining rural speech with the lyrical features of Persian poetry. He is particularly gifted in portraying the social and ethical problems of the poor, especially in rural areas where he grew up.
His most famous novels are ‘Kelidar’, ‘Missing Soluch’ ‘The Colonel’ which have been translated into Norwegian, German, English, Italian, and French and have been released in the West.
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In ‘Missing Soluch’, an impoverished woman raises her children in an isolated village after the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Soluch. The book was his first work translated into English.
‘Kelidar’ is a saga about a Kurdish nomadic family that spans 10 books and 3,000 pages. The story, narrated in lyrical language, is tremendously popular among Iranians due to its detailed portrayal of political and social upheavals.
‘The Colonel’ is a novel about nation, history, and family which Dowlatabadi wrote in the 1980s. Though it is published abroad in English and German, it is not available in Persian “as it needs some revisions to be approved by the ministry of culture and Islamic guidance.”
Earlier last year, Dowlatabadi received France’s Order of Arts and Letters, the highest cultural honor in France, from the French ambassador to Tehran Bruno Foucher.
