Description

When he was a boy, Aga Akbar, the deaf-mute illegitimate son of a Persian nobleman, traveled with his uncle to a cave on nearby Saffron Mountain. Once there, he was to copy a three-thousand-year-old cuneiform inscription—an order of the first king of Persia—as a means of freeing himself from his emotional confinement. For the remainder of his life, Aga Akbar used these cuneiform characters to fill a notebook with writings only he could understand. Years later, his son, Ishmael—a political dissident in exile—is attempting to translate the notebook . . . and in the process tells his father's story, his own, and the story of twentieth-century Iran.

A stunning and ambitious novel by a singular literary talent, My Father's Notebook is at once a masterful chronicle of a culture's troubled voyage into modernity and the poignant, timeless tale of a son's enduring love.

About the Author

Kader Abdolah is a pen name created to honor friends who died under the oppressive Iranian regime. The author of three novels, two short story collections, and numerous works of nonfiction, Abdolah joined a secret leftist organization while a student in Teheran. In 1988, at the invitation of the United Nations, he came to the Netherlands as a political refugee.

Praise For…

“A field guide to present day Iran... MY FATHER’S NOTEBOOK is a winning, courtly tale of Persian culture.” — Buffalo News

“Wonderful... Blends contemporary realism with Persian folklore, mirroring Iran’s... history through the eyes of a father and his son.” — Houston Chronicle

“MY FATHER’S NOTEBOOK, a lovely novel, has the cadence of a fairy tale and the clarity of truth .” — Wall Street Journal

“A storyteller of utmost subtlety and natural ease.” — Times Literary Supplement

“Moving and illuminating . . . The history of Iran in the 20th century glints through.” — Publishers Weekly

“An intimate portrait... Abdolah’s prose... is clean and lyrical... A sweeping novel that chronicles the tumultuous modern history of [Iran].” — Kirkus Reviews

“Myth and unlovely reality meet and mingle... Conveys the heartache of an exile who cannot help but feel a traitor.” — Christian Science Monitor

“Beautiful and poetic.” — Library Journal

“Remarkable . . . Moving, dreamlike . . . Scenes are beautifully rendered.” — Providence Journal