My Father's Notebook: A Novel - Couverture rigide

Abdolah, Kader

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0060598719 ISBN 13 : 9780060598716

Editeur : Harper, 2006

Synopsis

Book by Abdolah Kader

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Aga Akbar, the youngest of seven children and the illegitimate son of a Persian nobleman, is a deaf-mute. He makes use of a rudimentary sign language to get by in the world, but his deepest thoughts and feelings go unexpressed. Hoping to free the boy from his emotional confinement, his uncle asks him to visit a cave on nearby Saffron Mountain and to copy a three-thousand-year-old cuneiform inscription -- an order of the first king of Persia and the destination of many pilgrimages. Through the rest of his life, Aga Akbar uses these cuneiform characters to fill his notebook with writings only he can understand.

Years later, his political-dissident son, Ishmael, has been forced to flee Iran. From his new home in the Netherlands, he attempts to translate the notebook, and in the process he tells his father's story, his own story, and the story of twentieth-century Iran -- from the building of the first railroad to the struggles for power among the shah, the communists, and the mullahs, and ending with the revolution.

Rich in the myths of Persia and peopled with characters of rare archetypal power, this stunning and ambitious novel by Kader Abdolah masterfully charts a culture's troubled voyage into modernity. Just as poignantly, it is a magnificent, timeless tale of a son's love for his father.

Revue de presse

“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)

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Harper
• Date d'édition: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0060598719
• ISBN 13: 9780060598716
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 336