Лучшие книги Махмуда Довлатабади

Noć je i kiša pada u malom gradu u Iranu. Kolonel je zadubljen u misli. Sjećanja naviru. Na suprugu, na domoljube iz prošlosti, koji su ih poginuli ili pogubljeni, na njegovu djecu, koja su se pridružila različitim frakcijama tokom Iranske revolucije 1979. Čuje se kucanje na vratima. Dvojica mladih policajaca su došla po kolonela da preuzme izmučeno tijelo svoje najmlađe kćerke i pokopa je prije izlaska sunca.

In a narrative riddled with surreal images, shifting perspectives, and dark humor, Mahmoud Dowlatabadi — widely acknowledged as the most important living Iranian writer — offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the warring countries as he questions the meaning of national identity and does something that has been nearly impossible to do in Iran for the last century: tell a true story. Reluctant to write the report, the writer spends a long night talking and drinking with the Major and detailing a work of fiction he is composing about a group of soldiers trapped on a hill, dying of thirst as they battle for a water tank with a group of enemy soldiers perched on the opposite hill. The tank remains undamaged, but neither group has a hope of reaching it without being killed. In the midst of the Iran — Iraq War, an Iraqi journalist is given a tour of a military prison. The Major in charge of the camp informs the writer of what is expected: he is to write a fabricated report about a murder that has occurred in the camp, with the aim of demoralizing Iranian soldiers. “Dowlatabadi draws a detailed, realist picture of Iranian life. . . in language that is complex and lyrical.”

Perhaps the most important work in modern Iranian literature, this starkly beautiful novel examines the trials of an impoverished woman and her children living in a remote village in Iran, after the unexplained disappearance of her husband, Soluch. Lyrical yet unsparing, the novel examines her life as she contends with the political corruption, authoritarianism, and poverty of the village. It follows her vacillations between love for Soluch and anger at his absence, and her struggle to raise her children without their father. The novel critically evokes the unfulfilled aspirations of modern Iran — portraying a society caught between a…