The Prince - Hardcover

Golshiri, Hushang

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843431718 ISBN 13: 9781843431718

Publisher: Harvill Secker, 2007

Synopsis

In mid-1920s Iran in a crumbling house in a provincial town, the last survivor of a deposed dynasty is slowly dying from tuberculosis. The old prince's domain has been reduced to his domestic household, where the former glories of his ancestors haunt him. Drifting in and out of reality, the prince relives episodes of his forebears exulted and often brutal past; a macabre time of public despotism when men were put to death by being sheathed in plaster, and when a child might be beheaded as punishment for poor schoolwork. Long-dead relatives threaten menacingly from photographs the old prince surrounds himself with, damaged images fleetingly brought to life by a fractured hallucinatory mind, only to fade away as another vestige from the past rattles in its picture frame.

About this title

About the Author

Hushang Golshiri (1937-2000) was born in Isfahan, Iran. He worked as a teacher, published a collection of short stories and edited a literary journal. In 1978 he travelled to the USA, but returned the following year to become a leading writer and critic of post-revolution Iran. Golshiri was awarded Germany's Erich Maria Remarque Prize in 1999 for his efforts to fight oppressions and to promote democracy and human rights.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvill Secker
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1843431718
• ISBN 13: 9781843431718
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 128