My Father's Notebook: A Novel of Iran - Softcover

Abdolah, Kader

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060598727 ISBN 13: 9780060598723

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2007

Synopsis

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 this title

Product Description:

Aga Akbar, a deaf-mute boy, writes passionately of his life. A generation later, Akbar's son struggles to decipher the notebook. As he gets closer to his father's story, he unravels the tale of how the world of a carpet-mender was forced to give way to one where the hostile environment of modern Iran has brought the family both love and sacrifice.

Review:

"Beautiful and poetic." -- Library Journal

"Beautiful and poetic."--Library Journal

"An intimate portrait... Abdolah's prose... is clean and lyrical... A sweeping novel that chronicles the tumultuous modern history of [Iran]."--Kirkus Reviews

"MY FATHER'S NOTEBOOK, a lovely novel, has the cadence of a fairy tale and the clarity of truth ."--Wall Street Journal

"Wonderful... Blends contemporary realism with Persian folklore, mirroring Iran's... history through the eyes of a father and his son."--Houston Chronicle

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

"Remarkable . . . Moving, dreamlike . . . Scenes are beautifully rendered."--Providence Journal

"A field guide to present day Iran... MY FATHER'S NOTEBOOK is a winning, courtly tale of Persian culture."--Buffalo News

"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

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0060598727
• ISBN 13: 9780060598723
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 334