Symphony of the dead / Abbas Maroufi ; translated from Persian by Lotfali Khonji.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Maʻrūfī, ʻAbbās

Standardized Title:

Samfūnī-yi murdagān

Language:

English

Persian

Subjects (All):

Families--Iran--Fiction.

Families.

Iran.

Genre:

Fiction.

Domestic fiction.

Physical Description:

272 pages ; 21 cm

Place of Publication:

Wiltshire, Eng. : Aflame Books, 2007.

Summary:

A contemporary version of the Cain and Abel story, this novel was greeted with widespread praise when it was first published in Iran in 1989. Set in the northern town of Ardabil in the aftermath of the Second World War, the story begins as Urhan Urkhani, a prominent citizen of the town, sets out to find his brother in a midwinter snowstorm. Over the course of that day-long search, the entire history of the family is revealed in four symphony-like movements. Told through the rotating viewpoints of the family patriarch and each of his four children, the family's misfortunes become the mirror of a paternalistic and oppressive society that pits brother against brother, encourages a father to denounce a son and burn his poems, forces a daughter to remain in an unhappy marriage, and abandons the last child to a mysterious hidden existence.

Notes:

"First published in Persian in 1988 as Samfoni-e Mordegan"--T.p. verso.

ISBN:

9780955233968

0955233968

OCLC:

154702537