My Father's Notebook: A Novel - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060598719 ISBN 13: 9780060598716

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2006

Synopsis

The story of a father and son--Aga Akbar, the deaf-mute, illegitimate son of a Persian nobleman, and Ishmael, his political-dissident son--is set against the backdrop of twentieth-century Iran and offers a powerful and poignant saga of exile and home. 20,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

"Beautifully evoked in often touching and amusing detail, My Father's Notebook is an intriguing, complex and often playful novel that deserves attention" (Scotland on Sunday)

"With seamlessly interwoven quotations from Persian and Dutch literature, deft storytelling and affectionate humour, he offers the reader buoyancy as well as weight. My Father's Notebook is a gift to English readers" (Independent)

"A moving elegy for a lost father and homeland, but also a voice raised against all forms of repression... My Father's Notebook reads like a detective story: information is withheld so that we gradually discover the background to Ishmael's exile." (The Guardian)

"This poignant, affectionate and beautifully told tale reflects a longing for a lost homeland" (Guardian)

From the Back Cover:

"My Father's Notebook reads like a detective story . . . A moving elegy for a lost father and homeland."
Guardian

Ishmael is a man separated from his history. As a young man he was driven out of his home, exiled from all he loved most by the tumultuous revolution that overwhelmed his country. Years later, thousands of miles away, his father dies. His legacy is a notebook, which finds its way into Ishmael's hands. And through it Ishmael will uncover an extraordinary story that illuminates not only his own past, but also that of Iran itself.

"Simply told . . . it shows a nation lurching into a hostile modern world and what that does to an age-old thing like the bond between a father and his son." Big Issue

"Beautifully evoked . . . [with] deft storytelling and affectionate humour." Independent

"A storyteller of the utmost subtlety and natural ease . . . a moving and conflicted tribute to a marvellous character."
Times Literary Supplement

Longlisted for the independent foreign fiction prize

Translated by Susan Massotty

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060598719
• ISBN 13: 9780060598716
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 325