Reading and discussion
Mahmud Doulatabadi (Iran)
On the Abysses of Fear and Death
In Dostoevsky’s words, pain creates poetry, says Mahmud Doulatabadi (b.1940) the Grandseigneur of Persian literature. Doulatabadi’s “The Colonel,” which recently has been published in German, is a pitch black book about fear and death.
It is the first major literary work about the Iranian revolution of 1979 and its consequences; to date it has not yet been published in the author’s homeland. The plot of the book covers less than 24 hours, yet Mahmud Doulatabadi succeeds in drawing a mental portrait of a country caught in a labyrinth of nightmarish situations.
HOST: Barbara Wahlster SPEAKER: Bahman Nirumand
In cooperation with the Berlin Artists Program of the DAAD for the 10th international literature festival berlin