A new English translation of arguably the most famous twentieth century Persian novel A Penguin
Classic Written by one of the greatest Iranian writers of the twentieth century Blind Owl
tells a three-part story of a pen-case painter an isolated narrator with a fragile
relationship with time and reality. In part one he relates his own story in the first person
in a string of hazy dreamlike recollections fueled by opium and alcohol. He spends time
painting the covers of pen cases only to paint the exact same scene: an old man wearing a cape
and turban sitting under a cypress tree separated by a small stream from a beautiful woman in
black who is bending down to offer him a waterlily. The novel transitions to a one-page part
two where reader find the narrator covered in blood and waiting for the police to arrest him.
Part three gives readers a glimpse into the grim realities that unlock the mysteries of the
first part. Influenced by European writers like Kafka and de Maupassant Hedayat also reveals a
strong affinity with Dostoevsky. The protagonist of Blind Owl suffers from the brain fever
characteristic of many of Dostoevsky's heroes such as Crime and Punishment's Raskolnikov. Both
characters are also isolated in a tomb-like room surrounded by deafening echoes of disturbed
thoughts. Both are guilty of a horrible crime and paranoid of being arrested by the police at
any moment. But whereas Raskolnikov has intellectually convinced himself that he must commit
the crime for the greater good the pen-case painter acts on instinct and seems oddly unaware
of what he has done.
