Novel
The Neighbors
همسایهها
Ahmad Mahmoud · 1974
Synopsis
In a rented house in Ahvaz where several families are crammed together, in the early fifties, the teenager Khaled lives with his family and his little sister Jamileh, among the baker, the barber and the quarrels of the courtyard. Employed for a time at Aman Aqa's café, he experiences his first desire for the latter's young wife, Bolur Khanom. Then he meets the Tudeh party activists who are fighting to wrest the oil from the British, joins them, discovers the police station and falls in love with a girl whom the book calls Siah-Cheshm, “Black Eyes”.
Context
Begun in Ahvaz in 1963, the novel was completed in the spring of 1966; lacking a publisher, extracts appeared in the journals Ferdowsi, Jong-e Jonub and Payam-e Novin. Rewritten in 1352 of the Persian calendar, it was published by Amir Kabir in 1353, that is 1974 or 1975, in a thousand copies, on the recommendation of Ebrahim Younesi. Held up by the censors and then released, it could not be reprinted: the political police prevented it until 1357, when it reappeared in a large print run on the eve of the revolution, before being banned again for its sexual scenes. It opens a trilogy devoted to Khuzestan; Nastaran Kherad translated it into English in 2013.
Who it is for
A long novel, more than four hundred pages in English, that follows an adolescent. It is necessary to know that certain scenes, sexual in nature, have led to the book being banned in Iran.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the most significant novels of modern Persian literature, it secured its author's reputation.