About the Author

Gholamhossein Saedi (1936-1985) was a prolific Iranian writer. He has published over forty books, representing his talents in the fiction genres of drama (under the pen name Gohar Morad or Gowhar Murad according to Library of Congress transliteration]), the novel, the screenplay, and the short story in addition to the non-fiction genres of cultural criticism, travel literature and ethnography. Many consider the screenplay for Gav ("The Cow"), Dariush Mehrjui's 1969 film, to be Saedi's magnum opus as it ushered in the New Wave Iranian cinema. After the 1979 revolution and his subsequent exile, he maintained an important figure in the scene of Persian literature despite the Iranian diaspora of which he unwillingly became a part. Till his death in Paris, due to depression and related alcoholism, he remained one of the most prominent and prolific of Iranian writers and intellectuals internationally.