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Dagbok i kilskrift

3.73 of 5 stars 3.73 · rating details · 489 ratings · 62 reviews

I en grotta i Saffransberget lät den förste kungen av Persien hugga in en text i kilskrift om Mahdi (Messias) som ska komma och befria världen. Den dövstumme Agha Akbar förs till grottan för att kopiera kilskriften och skapar ett eget språk som han använder i sin dagbok. Många år senare sitter hans son Ismaiel i exil och försöker tyda dagboksanteckningarna. Det blir en res...more

Hardcover, 314 pages

Published 2011 by Nordstedts (first published December 31st 1999)

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Jun 27, 2007 Heather rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't finish this book because it really never grabbed me. I gave it the old "100 page try" but after awhile, I gave up. Usually I'm a sucker for international fiction and will read to the end even when I might give up on others. Maybe the story will click for someone else, but for me, it was just rather drab.

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Apr 11, 2013 Ingrid Verschelling rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Spijkerschrift van Kader Abdolah. Iedereen was zo enthousiast over dit boek op deze site, dat ik het boek wel eens wilde lezen. Dit is het eerst boek, wat ik van deze schrijver gelezen heb en het smaakt naar meer.

Aga Akbar is de vader van Ismaiel. Hij heeft nog meer kinderen, maar Ismaiel ontfermt zich het meest over hem, omdat hij de oudste is en zijn vader doofstom is. Ismaiel moet de gebarentaal van zijn vader altijd vertalen in gewone taal. Zo zijn ze meer met elkaar verbonden dan anders het...more Spijkerschrift van Kader Abdolah. Iedereen was zo enthousiast over dit boek op deze site, dat ik het boek wel eens wilde lezen. Dit is het eerst boek, wat ik van deze schrijver gelezen heb en het smaakt naar meer.

Aga Akbar is de vader van Ismaiel. Hij heeft nog meer kinderen, maar Ismaiel ontfermt zich het meest over hem, omdat hij de oudste is en zijn vader doofstom is. Ismaiel moet de gebarentaal van zijn vader altijd vertalen in gewone taal. Zo zijn ze meer met elkaar verbonden dan anders het geval zou zijn. Aga Akbar is opgevoed door zijn oudoom, Kazem Gan, nadat zijn moeder overleed toen hij tien jaar oud was. Zijn vader was een edelman, maar hij mocht nooit zijn erfrecht claimen, omdat zijn moeder een soort bijvrouw was. Dichtbij de Safraanberg, waar zij woonden, is een historische grot, waar een tekst op de wand te vinden is in spijkerschrift, die nog nooit ontcijferd is. Kazem Gan laat Aga de tekst overschrijven. Kazem heeft in de gaten dat Aga vaak hoofdpijn heeft. Hij denkt, dat Aga allerlei verhalen in z’n hoofd heeft die hij kwijt moet. Zo kan Aga ook zijn gedachten opschrijven.

Als Ismaiel naar Nederland gevlucht is, krijgt hij het boek van zijn vader toegestuurd als deze overleden is. Hij wil het verhaal van zijn vader schrijven in de Nederlandse taal. Hij moet het spijkerschrift van zijn vader vertalen naar gewone taal om zijn verhalen met ons te kunnen delen. Het eerste deel bestaat uit het verhaal van zijn vader, en zijn leven in de bergen, vlak bij de Russische grens. In een ander deel beschrijft Ismaiel zijn eigen leven in Nederland. Hij haalt ook herinneringen op aan zijn studententijd in Teheran en waarom hij moest vluchten naar Nederland.

In Spijkerschrift is veel autobiografisch. Kader Abdolah is het pseudoniem van Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami. Deze naam gebruikte hij als eerbetoon aan een paar vrienden, die door de overheid geëxecuteerd waren, Kader tijdens het bewind van de sjah en Abdolah onder Khomeini. Hij studeerde natuurkunde aan de universiteit van Teheran, net als Ismaiel. Hij sloot zich aan bij een linkse partij en verzette zich tegen het bewind van de sjah en later tegen de ayatollahs. Nadat hij gevlucht was, kwam hij na omzwervingen terecht in Nederland. Daar wilde hij de Nederlandse taal leren. Dat deed hij aan de hand van kinderboeken, zoals Ot en Sien en gedichtenbundels. Hij heeft ook nog een jaar aan de universiteit Nederlandse literatuur gevolgd. Het verhaal van zijn vader is ook zijn geschiedenis.

Kader Abdolah gebruikt in zijn roman Spijkerschrift veel citaten uit de Perzische literatuur. Echter hij citeert ook enkele Nederlandse dichters en schrijvers, wat knap is van een buitenlandse schrijver in Nederland. Spijkerschrift is een mooie psychologische roman geworden, waardoor je veel inzicht krijgt in het leven in Iran.(less)

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Aug 16, 2012 Gijs rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, novels, dutch, 20th-century, asia, persian, dutch-literature, 20th-century-1990s

Het leven van de doofstomme en wat simpele Perzische tapijtenknoper Aga Akbar staat centraal in deze roman, die deels door een alwetende verteller en deels door Aga Akbars zoon Ismaiel verteld wordt. Deze laatste probeert het onzinspijkerschrift waarin zijn analfabete vader zijn dagboek bijhield, te ontcijferen. Of hem dat echt lukt en het vertelde gebaseerd is op de aantekeningen, laat Abdolah volledig in het ongewisse. Het doet er ook niet toe, het vertelplezier staat centraal in deze roman.

Ab...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Ron rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This autobiographical novel is a lot of things. Part politics, history, geography, religion, it also takes its place among the growing literature of refugees and displacement. Meanwhile, it tells a heart-felt personal story about an educated man and his father, a deaf-mute carpet mender. Set in Iran during many decades of the twentieth century, it includes historical events and social changes and ends with the arrival of the year 2000. The two shahs, Mossadegh, and Khomeini take their time on st...more This autobiographical novel is a lot of things. Part politics, history, geography, religion, it also takes its place among the growing literature of refugees and displacement. Meanwhile, it tells a heart-felt personal story about an educated man and his father, a deaf-mute carpet mender. Set in Iran during many decades of the twentieth century, it includes historical events and social changes and ends with the arrival of the year 2000. The two shahs, Mossadegh, and Khomeini take their time on stage, each leaving their mark for better or worse. The Soviet Union looms along a 1200-mile border to the north; Saddam Hussein declares war; the West extracts oil. Meanwhile, Aga Akbar, the father of the title, lives a life absorbed by a confounding world, dependent first on an opium-addicted uncle and then a son, Ishmael, who is writing his story after his death.

The mystery at the center of the book is our inability to know what Aga Akbar thinks and feels. Trapped in a sensory world without hearing or speech, he communicates by a simple, private sign language, but the novel makes no attempt to represent his actual experience. This is all the more tantalizing because he has kept an indecipherable notebook written in cuneiform, which he has first seen on the wall of a mountain cave near his village.

The book is also Ishmael's story, growing up before his time as he cares for his father, their roles reversed, especially in his efforts to help his father understand the world. At one point he tries to help him comprehend the solar system by showing him a picture of astronauts on the moon. The deep love of father for son is made more poignant by their separation, first as Ishmael goes off to university in Tehran and becomes an active member of the communist party, working for the overthrow of one oppressive government after another, then as he flees to the West, to eventually find sanctuary in the Netherlands, where he is writing this book. Well translated from Dutch, it deserves a wide readership as we come ourselves to understand a world we have been deaf and blind to.(less)

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Oct 20, 2011 Elsje rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2003

Vanmiddag uitgelezen. Ik schreef vorig jaar al twee maal, naar aanleiding van 'de reis van de lege flessen' en 'Een tuin in de zee', zeer lovend over Kader Abdolah.

In korte, heldere zinnen komen de personen tot leven. In Spijkerschrift beschrijft hij het leven van zijn (eigen?) doofstomme vader. Hoe hem door zijn oom schrijven geleerd wordt, in een eigen bedacht 'Spijkerschrift'. Hoe hij toch 'aan de vrouw komt'. Hoe hij leunt op zijn zoon Ismaiel, en zijn zoon ook op hem. De poging van Ismaiel...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Max rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Het was een tijd geleden dat ik een levensverhaal in mijn handen had. Ik heb het met plezier uitgelezen, zonder dat het een grote indruk achtergelaten heeft. Aga Akbar is een onbestemd persoon, en ik heb niet het gevoel dat ik hem echt heb leren kennen. Het spijkerschrift ontsloot zijn leven, maar zijn motieven, zijn drijfveren, zijn gevoelens blijven een mysterie. Niet alleen voor ons, maar met name voor zijn familieleden. Een ongeleid projectiel vliegt door 60 jaar Iraanse geschiedenis vanaf d...more

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Jun 22, 2009 Michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The novel presents a very inspiring and beautiful tale of a Deaf man's journey during his country's (Iran) transformation into modern nation. Although very beautiful, it also shows the similarities of how the pre-modern Iran, like the rest of the world, view the Deaf. They share the same angle -- being "deaf" is a disability. The word "deaf-mute" is used many times in the novel, referred to Aga Akbar as person who cannot speak or even hear.

But the perspective is absolutely wrong! Aga is not a "...more

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Dec 20, 2010 Suci ays rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My Father's Notebook

Sebenarnya cerita buku ini cukup menarik, hingga membuat ku ingin segera menuntaskan membacanya pada hari itu juga. kisah tentang seorang anak yang ingin menterjemahkan buku catatan harian sang ayah. Sepertinya mudah kalau hanya sekedar menterjemahkan, namun pekerjaan ini menjadi sulit dan cukup mustahil bila sang ayah menulis dengan kode yang hanya dia sendiri yang mengetahuinya.

Ayahnya, Aga Akbar adalah seorang Bisu tuli, ia tak bisa membaca, namun ia bisa menulis. Ia menul...more My Father's Notebook

Sebenarnya cerita buku ini cukup menarik, hingga membuat ku ingin segera menuntaskan membacanya pada hari itu juga. kisah tentang seorang anak yang ingin menterjemahkan buku catatan harian sang ayah. Sepertinya mudah kalau hanya sekedar menterjemahkan, namun pekerjaan ini menjadi sulit dan cukup mustahil bila sang ayah menulis dengan kode yang hanya dia sendiri yang mengetahuinya.

Ayahnya, Aga Akbar adalah seorang Bisu tuli, ia tak bisa membaca, namun ia bisa menulis. Ia menulis dengan huruf dan kode - kode yang ia temukan sendiri, menarik bukan? kira - kira metode apa yang akan digunakan Ismail dalam menterjemahkan catatan ayahnya menjadi bahasa yang bisa dibaca orang lain?

Alurnya campur aduk membuat saya sebagai pembaca kadang harus berhenti sejenak untuk mengetahui jaman mana yang sedang dia bicarakan, saat ia menceritakan masa kecilnya tiba - tiba ia meloncat cepat tanpa aba - aba dan pemberitahuan segera beralih kemasa ketika ia tengah kuliah di Teheran, malah tidak segan pula ia langsung bercerita tentang masa kini dimana ia sudah terdampar di negeri kincir angin, Belanda.

Namun setelah menuntaskan buku ini, saya malah merasa geregetan tak karuan, entah apa itu karena masa yang diceritakan tentang awal masa kekuasaaan Islam, Imam Khomeini di Iran, dimana dalam buku ini digambarkan sangat kejam dan kaku. Ia tak segan - segan menangkapi lawan - lawan politik yang berseberangan ideologi. Hingga membuatku merasa citra Islam yang Rahmatan lil alamin hilang entah kemana.

Atau kah karena perlakuan Ismail dan adiknya Lonceng Emas pada ayahnya. Ia yakin sang ayah akan melakukan apa saja demi dia, maka ia memanfaatkan ayahnya untuk kepentingan partai politiknya, membiarkan sang ayah mempertaruhkan nyawanya menyeberangi perbatasan. Sungguh hati ini teriris - iris. Kejamnya.

Diakhir cerita penulis tidak menyuguhkan ending yang jelas, dibuat mengambang. antara happy ending dan tragis.

Mungkin akan ada yang menganggap akhir ceritanya happy ending bila diukur dari sang tokoh utama Ismail, akhirnya dapat hidup dengan tenang & damai, lepas dari kejaran pemerintahan Imam Khomeini di Belanda. Namun bagi saya cerita ini berakhir tragis karena Aga Akbar harus mati demi menyelamatkan kedua anaknya yang Komunis.(less)

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Sep 26, 2007 Ilman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A great work of fiction. Clever plot. Wonderful description. Poetic and tragic.

But read this one simply as a fictional work, and not as a text book for the history of Iran.

Written by a left-wing activist, you can expect what he will say about the Iranian history. Well, I cannot blame him. Like beauty, history is in the eye of the beholder.

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Aug 25, 2011 Johanna Varnander rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arab-middleeast

This book was quite different, yet similar, to his book "House of the Mousqe", which I really enjoyed. I read the Swedish translation "Dagbok i kilskrift" and I found it captivating. Just as HotM, this book covers parts of the iranian civil war with perspectives from the left-wing movement. Even though this book actually takes place in the same period as HotM, it is quite different. Kader Abdolah writes with a sense of love and loss and determination. Agha Akbar, the main character, really shine...more

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Jun 16, 2007 Flora rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of the written word

Shelves: books-that-take-me-to-other-countri

For me, the book offered a lyrical lesson about the history and culture of Iran, a nation I know so little about. The writing is exquisite, and the story of the mute man's life is also memorable.

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Jan 26, 2011 Jewel rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The idea of Aga Akbar was interesting, i wish the book was more about him, I wish that we could have gone into his mind, and maybe read actual excerpt from his notebook. It would have been more interesting.
But I kinda lost the interest in the book once it started to be political. This is not criticism to the book, but I happen to hate politics, I avoid it as much as I can, and I certainly do not like reading about it for my enjoyment.
I also found the Dutch references confusing.
I did struggle a l...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Marco rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I really liked Abdolah's book: the real rate gave it is 3.75 so the star ratings worth 4 stars.
I liked his writing: calm, clear, intimate and yet strong.
A special praise should be assigned because the book was written in Dutch that is not the native language of Abdolah.
The story is a nice back and forth between real events heavily on the history of Persia-Iran and stories full of epic characters pictured with poetry as Aga Akbar, Kazem Gan, Tine etc..
Even the set in Netherland, albeit not of the...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Lisetta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: libreria

Non saprei da dove cominciare per commentare la meravigliosa e affascinate storia narrata in queste pagine. Mi rendo conto quanto sia difficile per me, cercare di spiegare in poche righe , un mondo e una storia lontane da me, eppure vicine nell'amore e ne dolore trasmesso, che mi colpisce in quanto figlia. Infatti Il rapporto tra un padre un figlio è un legame così unico, così particolare che tutto il resto ne è escluso ,e anche il dolore, i sacrifici che ne provengono sono intensi e difficili d...more Non saprei da dove cominciare per commentare la meravigliosa e affascinate storia narrata in queste pagine. Mi rendo conto quanto sia difficile per me, cercare di spiegare in poche righe , un mondo e una storia lontane da me, eppure vicine nell'amore e ne dolore trasmesso, che mi colpisce in quanto figlia. Infatti Il rapporto tra un padre un figlio è un legame così unico, così particolare che tutto il resto ne è escluso ,e anche il dolore, i sacrifici che ne provengono sono intensi e difficili da capire pienamente.
Attraverso una scrittura semplice, pacata ma poetica, Kader Abdolah ci fa immergere proprio in questa storia tra un padre, riparatore di tappeti e un figlio rivoluzionario dell’Iran, nel suo passaggio di poteri tra lo scià di Persia e il “regime religioso” di Khomeini. Tutto intorno a loro è immerso nella tradizione, nelle credenze popolari e religiose, nelle superstizioni, nella cultura affascinante che converge nelle donne che annodando tappeti, ricamandoci i loro sogni di libertà; nella grotta che riporta un’antica scrittura cuneiforme che nessun studioso nel corso dei secoli è riuscito e decifrare.;o all'interno di un pozzo dove si crede, sia rifugiato da secoli l’ultimo discendente di Maometto. In mezzo loro, AKbar e il figlio Ismail, nato per aiutare il padre sordomuto. Il loro legame è così forte che si comprendono anche solo con gli sguardi o con il corpo, tra loro non c’è bisogno di parole, basta ammirare le stelle insieme per sentirsi legati ad unico universo. Solo Ismail riesce ad entrare nel mondo ovattato di suo padre. Naturale dunque che nel momento in cui un legame del genere è spezzato –come il filo di lana che serve per riparare un tappeto- si crei il vuoto , una mancanza.
Così che quel padre che per tutta la sua lunga esistenza si è chiuso nel proprio silenzio, lasciando che la vita scorresse placida intorno a lui, ora agisce e ora parla ,anzi griderà disperato un nome. Il suo sacrificio non rimarrà vano, ma anzi segnerà un inizio pieno di speranza per i suoi figli simbolo delle generazioni future.
La perdita è un’esperienza che porta ad una strada nuova. Una nuova occasione per pensare in modo diverso. Perdere non è la fine di tutto, ma la fine di un certo modo di pensare. Chi cade in un punto, in un altro si rialza. Questa è la legge della vita(less)

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Aug 24, 2012 Karlo Mikhail Mongaya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The English translation of My Father’s Notebook is the only book by Kader Abdolah that I’ve read. The novel is also my first and only encounter with the exiled Iranian writer who now lives in the Netherlands. But the issues Abdolah’s book highlight on life in Iran under the Shah, the heroic struggles of the leftist resistance movement, and the eventual ascendancy of the Islamist mullahs in the power struggle following the revolution of 1979, are all relevant and makes My Father’s Notebook a rewa...more The English translation of My Father’s Notebook is the only book by Kader Abdolah that I’ve read. The novel is also my first and only encounter with the exiled Iranian writer who now lives in the Netherlands. But the issues Abdolah’s book highlight on life in Iran under the Shah, the heroic struggles of the leftist resistance movement, and the eventual ascendancy of the Islamist mullahs in the power struggle following the revolution of 1979, are all relevant and makes My Father’s Notebook a rewarding read.

The history of Iran, like the history of all hitherto human societies, is a history of the struggles between the oppressor and the oppressed, the exploiter and the exploited, the dominator and the dominated. Nowhere is this as clear as in that brief period called the 20th Century when Iran fell in the hands of successive authoritarian regimes – from the British colonizing power to the two Shahs and eventually the Islamist dictatorship. My Father’s Notebook is an attempt at coming to terms with this history.

The narrator Ishmael shifts between an account of a life of melancholia and nostalgia in the Netherlands and memories of his own life and that of his deaf-mute father, Aga Akbar, back in Iran. Ishmael makes use of his father’s indecipherable notebook, which is written in cuneiform, in retracing the past. Being deaf-mute, Aga Akbar developed his own unique system of writing from the ancient cuneiform of the first king of Persia carved on the cave walls of Saffron Mountain which he first visited with his uncle as a child.

Ishmael thus grapples with the recollections of a deaf-mute father who he assisted as personal guide and translator since his childhood – but he never completely understood. His accounts of his father’s notes give the reader a peek of life in the Iranian countryside. Aga Akbar is the illegitimate son of a noble. He serves as a guide to archaeologists visiting the caves of Saffron Mountain for the cuneiforms. He trains to become a carpet mender and becomes the most renowned of menders in his province.

Aga Akbar personally encounters the first Shah, who rides into his village to personally oversee the building of train tracks through the countryside, and for which Aga Akbar and his entire village volunteered. He marries the strong-willed countrywoman Tina, sires 4 children, and eventually moves from the village by Saffron Mountain to the city where his handicrafts skills are rendered useless as he becomes absorbed into factory work. Aga Akbar’s life story eventually intertwines with that of the younger narrator.

Ishmael goes on to study at the University of Tehran but subsequently dropout to pursue full time work as a professional leftwing revolutionary. His party agitates against the Shah, organize a clandestine movement, and wage a guerrilla war with the Cuban Revolution as their model. Of course, they were eventually outmaneuvered by the Imams. But more than the standard academic postcolonial valorization of exile, My Father’s Notebook gives us a glimpse into the lost promise held by the possibility of a genuine revolution in Iran.

This is the tragedy of the Iranian Revolution of 1979. After the mobilization of masses of Iranians toppled the authoritarian regime of the Shah, the Islamists led by Khomeini outmaneuvered other democratic, secular, leftwing forces and seized power. The mullahs initiated a counter-revolution that pushed the country in a regressive direction, back towards the restoration of a feudal theocratic rule of which the only thing new is it’s being propped up by the worst modern instruments of state repression.

The outcome of the Iranian struggle thus presents a strong warning about what a defeat for revolutionary left forces could mean. As in Germany and Spain in the 1930s or Chile in the 1970s, where the fascists won the hearts and minds of the petty bourgeois, the Islamists of Iran were able to win over large sections of the rising urban masses and a feudal landlord class that feared the prospects of genuine social revolution and the consequential redistribution of their rural estates.

The novel ends with the escape of one of Ishmael’s comrades from the Imam’s jails, an escape that symbolizes the militancy and indomitable spirit of the Iranian people. The spirit of resistance is still in the air in Iran even under the most repressive conditions, as the frequent outbreak of youth and workers protests in recent years have shown. It is the specter of this rising up of the Iranian people, and not US and Israeli war of aggression against Iranian sovereignty that spells the hope for real liberation of the people of Iran.(less)

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Mar 08, 2012 Lizza11 rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own, gekregen, gekocht-in-2011, gelezen-in-2012

Een mooi verhaal over een doofstomme vader in Iran, dat moet sowieso gezegd worden.
In het begin, en dan vooral boek 1, had ik nogal wat moeite met de schrijfstijl. Het was heel onduidelijk en sprong steeds van de hak op de tak. Het is ook heel moeilijk te schrijven over iemand die doofstom is, maar de 'korte stukjes' waren ook niet chronologisch geschreven en werkte daarmee verwarrend. Je krijgt al wel stukjes mee over het leven van Aga Akbar, die toch een bijzondere man is.
Vanaf boek 2 komt er...more

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Jan 09, 2012 Mara rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: narrativa, mediorientale, ebook

Bellissimo libro; letto dopo “la casa della moschea” che mi ha fatto scoprire Kader Abdolah e che mi confermato la bravura di questo scrittore.
Il libro narra le vicende di una famiglia iraniana attraverso la storia della Persia (e poi Iran) degli ultimi cinquanta anni, attraverso il rapporto fra il padre,analfabeta e sordomuto, ed il figlio, alter ego dello scrittore, che del padre e’ “la bocca e le orecchie”. E’ un romanzo in cui le storie si snodano dai tempi dello scià alla rivoluzione islam...more

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Jun 09, 2010 Mariana rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Me atrajo el título y las contratapa:
El reflejo de las palabras de Kader Abdolah:
Los lazos profundos e indestructibles entre un padre y un hijo, capaces de perdurar a través del tiempo y del espacio gracias al poder aglutinante del arte y de la lengua, son el fundamento narrativo de esta novela original y conmovedora, de marcado carácter autobiográfico. Ismail, un novelista iraní exiliado en Holanda, recibe por correo el diario de su padre fallecido, un tejedor de alfombras de Arak, región remot...more

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Mar 03, 2010 Euisry Noor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiksi-luar-negeri, novel, terjemahan, historical-fiction

Ingatlah ketika pemuda-pemuda Kahfi itu berlindung ke dalam gua lalu mereka berdoa, “Ya, Tuhan kami. Berikanlah rahmat kepada kami dari sisi-Mu.”
….

Petikan beberapa ayat Surat Al-Kahfi membuka (juga menjadi penutup) “My Father’s Notebook”, sebuah novel Iran karya Kader Abdollah yang bercerita tentang seorang ayah bisu-tuli dan anak lelakinya. Sebuah kisah yang dituturkan dengan indah, bersetting tempat dan budaya Persia yang menawan, dan bergulir dengan jalinan latar dinamika sejarah modern Iran...more

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May 18, 2009 Harun Harahap rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: punya, fiksi, terjemahan, middle-east-muslim

buku ini berlatar belakang Persia..atau kita kenal dengan negara Iran..bercerita tentang Ismail yang menerima sebuat paket buku bertuliskan huruf paku..tulisan ini milik ayahnya aga Akbar..Aga Akbar adalah seorang bisu tuli..dia mulai menulis tulisan sendirinya sendiri setelah pamannya Kazem Khan mengajaknya ke salah satu gua dimana terdapat tulisan2 paku didinding gua tersebut..

Ismail pun mulai berusaha untuk mengartikan tulisan2 tersebut..dan dia pun mulai mengurai kehidupannya beserta orang t...more

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Sep 12, 2008 Harry Rutherford rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: around-the-world, middle-east, asia

Kader Abdolah left Iran as a political refugee, having been part of a leftist political party that opposed first the Shah and then the ayatollahs. He has lived in the Netherlands since 1988 and My Father’s Notebook is actually a translation (by Susan Massotty) from Dutch. Despite that, I’m counting it for Iran for the Read The World challenge.

The story is narrated by a Iranian political refugee living in the Netherlands, who tells the story of his father, a deaf-mute carpet mender, over the peri...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Dini Kusuma Wardinny rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

bercerita tentang Aga Akbar seorang lelaki dan seorang ayah yang bisu tuli. dia menulis dalam huruf paku, mencurahkan isi hatinya.
berlatar belakang di Iran, sekitar abad ke 20.
Novel ini mencritakan Iran dan pandangan Aga Akbar dan anaknya, Ismail. Sejak mulai kekuasaan antara Syah Iran, partai komunis dan para mullah.

kehidupan memang tidak selalu mudah bag setiap orang tetapi, Aga Akbar dengan kisahnya memberikan harapan dan semangat untuk kehidupan yang lebih baik.

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Mar 17, 2012 Jane Glen rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Quite an interesting story of Ishmael who attempts to translate his father's notebook to unravel his story. His father is a deaf-mute and uses cuneiform characters to write his in his notebook. The story goes back and forth between present day and the life of his father which comes to light through painstaking translation of the story. If you liked A Thousand Splendid Suns, you may enjoy this as well.

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Apr 03, 2012 Sophiene rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cont-historic, auto-biographic

I have been to a reading given by this writer and loved it. So when someone suggested we read this book for our bookclub I was immediately for it. And I wanted to like it, but I didn't.... I don't know why I didn't like it, maybe it was just the wrong book at that time, but I just couldn't get into it. All the other people in my bookgroup liked it a lot, so it must be me ;-))

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Feb 08, 2011 Char rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

At first hard to read but the way gets more interesting. This is one Iranians story of life under rulevthat is horrid and the shattered life of his family doused with the disappointment that democracy was hyjacked by the Ayatollah with thousands murdered to make that country a hateful Muslim theocracy. It's a sad read but everyone should read it at least once.

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Apr 08, 2013 Maria Grazia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebook, narrativa-olandese

Tra passato e presente, tra Persia e Olanda, riconciliarsi col passato per poter vivere più pienamente il presente. Ismail, rifugiato politico iraniano, fuggito dalla presa del potere degli ayathollah, che hanno precipitato l'Iran dalla dittatura alla fanatica teocrazia, cerca di adattarsi al suo nuovo paese ricostruendo la figura paterna e i suoi appunti scritti in una inventata scrittura cuneiforme.
Bellissimo.

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Aug 18, 2012 Cath Van rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

Writing a good novel is one thing. Writing a good novel in a language not your own is something else. Kader Abdolah fled his country in 1985 and became a political refugee in The Netherlands in 1988. He learned the language and continued his writing career -had already published two books in Iran- in Dutch.Kader Abdolah often says that in the beginning of his writing in Dutch he had a limited amount of words available. It is exactly that which has in my opinion contributed much to his distinctiv...more

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Jan 02, 2011 Ardi Saputra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Saya membeli buku ini, karena harganya yang cuma 10 ribu di Gramedia, sepertinya buku ini tidak begitu sukses di Pasaran Indonesia,

dalam hal ini saya sedikit mempelajari tentang bagaimana sejarah tentang revolusi Islam di Iran, yang walaupun cukup menarik untuk disimak, tapi tidak pernah benar-benar saya perhatikan,

bagaimana novel ini menceritakan tentang gesekan antar faksi pada masa itu...

Pada akhirnya, penghujung novel ini cukup menyebalkan karena saya benci untuk melihat ada tokoh yang tidak...more

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May 03, 2010 Eunice rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Loved this story. I think it helped that I heard the writer speak so got a firsthand account of the story. I also shook his hand, which further propelled my adoration of the book.

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Apr 18, 2013 Tea Jovanović rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed-for-business

Nedavno objavila Dereta... Nažalost ovu knjigu su prevodili s engleskog... Džamijska kuća je prevedena s holandskog, i majstorski je to uradila naša divna Ivana Šćepanović...

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About Kader Abdolah

Kader Abdolah is the penname of Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahani, an Iranian writer who also writes in Dutch. Abdolah has lived in the Netherlands since 1988.

He studied physics in Arak College of Science and fled the country as a political refugee in 1988. Today he lives in Delft (the Netherlands), writing under a pseudonym made up of the names of two murdered friends. Het huis van de moskee...more

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De boodschapper en de Koran: een vertelling / een vertaling

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