KADER ABDOLAH
Pseudonym of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani, he was born on 12 December 1954 in Arak, Iran.
The first of six children, he cultivated a passion for literature from childhood, following in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather, Qhaem Megham Ferahni, a politician and poet assassinated by the Shah in 1875, and pursuing his dream of becoming a writer.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Tehran, where he studied physics and published two collections of short stories using the pseudonyms of two opposition figures, Kader and Abdolah, assassinated by Iran’s ayatollah regime.
Discovered by the authorities and identified as an active member of the opposition, he was forced to leave his country and move to Turkey, where he stayed for three years until, after making contact with a Dutch delegation to the United Nations, he managed to obtain political refugee status and settle in the Netherlands. Here he completed his literary studies and began writing in Dutch, a language he considered the ‘language of freedom’, and quickly became one of the country’s most important and popular writers.
In 1993 he made his debut with the short story collection De adelaars (The Eagles), which focused on his experience as an exile: the work won him the Gouden Ezelsoor, a Dutch prize for newcomers.
In 1995 he published a second collection on the same subject, De meisjes en de partizanen (The Girls and the Partisans).
In 2000, he published Scrittura cuneiforme (Cuneiform Writing), a novel that won him international fame and success and he went on to win the 2009 Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy with The House of the Mosque.
His other novels, published in Italy by Iperborea, include Il viaggio delle bottiglie vuote (The journey of the empty bottles), Il messaggero (The Messenger, A Tale Retold), Un papagallo volò sull’IJssel (A parrot flew over the IJssel), Uno scià alla corte d’Europa, Il re (The king), Il corvo, Il sentiero delle babbucce gialle.
His works have been published in many languages and he has received numerous awards, including the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands and the title of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France.
Photo: Basso Cannarsa
Kader Abdolah on Wikipedia >> https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kader_Abdolah
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BIBLIOGRAPHY, ITALIAN EDITION
Il viaggio delle bottiglie vuote
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2001
Scrittura cuneiforme
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2003
Calila e dimma
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2005
Ritratti e un vecchio sogno
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2007
La casa della moschea
(The house of the mosque)
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2008
Il messaggero
(The messenger, A tale retold)
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2010
Il re
(The king)
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2012
Il corvo
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2013
Un pappagallo volò sull’IJssel
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2016
Uno scià alla corte d’Europa
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2017
Il sentiero delle babbucce gialle
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2020
Il faraone d’Olanda
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo
Milano, Iperborea, 2022
Le mille e una notte
translation by Elisabetta Svaluto Moreolo and Claudia Cozzi
Milano, Iperborea, 2023
