What Is The Blind Owl and Why Is It Still So Disturbingly Powerful?

The Blind Owl: A Surreal Masterpiece of Persian Literature

The Blind Owl (Būf-e Kūr, 1937) is a haunting surrealist novella by Sadegh Hedayat – often called the father of modern Persian fiction – that follows an opium-addicted painter’s nightmarish descent into despair. Written in Persian and later translated into English, the book explores themes of isolation, madness, and death in a dark, dre...