Kader Abdolah (a pen name created in memoriam to friends who died
under persecution by the current Iranian regime) was born in Iran
in 1954. While a student of physics in Tehran, he joined a secret
leftist party that fought against the dictatorship of the shah and
the subsequent dictatorship of the ayatollahs. Abdolah wrote for an
illegal journal and clandestinely published two books in Iran. In
1988, at the invitation of the United Nations, he arrived in the
Netherlands as a political refugee.
Kader Abdolah now writes in Dutch and is the author of several
novels, including My Father's Notebook (also published by
Canongate) and two collections of short stories, as well as works
of non-fiction. In 2008 Kader Abdolah was honoured with the
Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.
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.
* * Guardian on MY FATHER'S NOTEBOOK * *
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 * *
Abdolah's juxtapositions - the spiritual and the earthly, myth and
reality - give the story a powerful irony . . . Abdolah lathers the
story with an almost deliberate nostalgia, choosing not to drive
recent history into the present day. Instead, he presents just the
nascent phases of the revolution and the wide-eyed innocence of
those, such as Aqa Jaan, who held such high hopes for all it could
have been.
* * Independent * *
Kader Abdollah . . . tells this story straight from the heart. And
it's on the heart too that it leaves an indelible mark.
* * Scotsman * *
Beautifully written and fiercely readable.
* * Daily Mail * *
Kader Abdollah skillfully guides readers through the key worlds
events and their effects on the Aqa Jaan household, in this book
that offers unique insight into the Iranian Revolution. Moving
without being overly sentimental and entertaining and entertaining
while staying true to the facts, this expertly mingles fiction and
personal history to create a thought provoking novel.
* * Waterstone's Books Quarterly * *
Compelling and moving, the book delivers, in spite of all the
tragedy, a sense of hope.
* * Skinny * *
Abdolah lathers the story with an almost deliberate nostalgia,
choosing not to drive recent history into the present day. Instead
he presents just the nascent phases of the revolution and the wide
eyed innocence of those, such as Aqa Jann, who held such high hopes
for all it could have been.
* * Belfast Evening Telegraph * *
Warm, generous and ultimately optimistic.
* * Sunday Herald * *
Richly sensuous.
* * Independent * *
Kader Abdolah's fable-like story of a family caught in the turmoil
of the Iranian revolution is beguiling and utterly original. It is
that rare thing: a deeply political novel that informs, thrills,
and moves in equal measure
* * Tahmima Anam, author of A GOLDEN AGE * *
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