BLIND OWL

The Dialogue Book Club selection for winter reading is Sadeq Hedayat’s The Blind Owl. Initially banned in the author’s native Iran, The Blind Owl is the book credited with kick-starting the modernist movement in that country. First published in 1937, Sadeq Hedayat’s novella follows the feverish visions of the unnamed narrator, as he journeys through a nightmarish world fuelled by wine and opium. The ailing misanthrope is tormented by visions of a mysterious woman and a murder, and confesses to his own shadow, which takes the form of an owl cast on his wall. Inspired by the work of the French symbolists, the book uses a non-linear structure, with layers of interwoven and dreamlike events that approach the form of prose-poetry, with recurring themes of shadows and mirrors. The result is a troubling, Kafkaesque portrayal of a man’s descent into the psychological abyss. Today, republished works by Sadegh Hedayat are once again banned in Iran.