Persian novel “His Ego” published in Indonesian by a UT Graduate

Persian writer Reza Amirkhani’s novel “His Ego” (“Akunya Dia”) has been published in Indonesian.

The story has been translated into Indonesian by Bastian Zulyeno, an Indonesian expert on the Persian language who has a Ph.D. from the University of Tehran.

The novel tells the story of Ali Fattah, a man from a well-established family in Tehran who falls in love with Mahtab, the daughter of their family maid. Due to Ali’s belief in a pure love, Mahtab declines to marry him until she becomes sure about her real love for Ali. Mahtab enjoys guidelines from a dervish named Mostafa, who is a key character in her life. In the end, however, Ali and Mahtab die unattached in order to marry each other in the future life.         

Ofoq, a major publisher based in Tehran, released the original book in 1999. This novel is one of Amirkhani’s hugely popular novels, which has been republished 38 times. It has been translated into various languages including Arabic, Russian and Turkish.

Armenia’s Darak Publishing House in Yerevan has purchased the rights for the Armenian translation of “His Ego”.

Amirkhani is a bestselling novelist in his homeland. His book “Salvation”, about the consequences of urban development for a young couple that lives in Tehran, was selected as best novel in 2018 at the 11th Jalal Al-e Ahmad Literary Awards, Iran’s most lucrative literary prize.

“A Half of One-Sixth of Pyongyang”, Amirkhani’s travelogue of North Korea, appeared in Tehran bookstores in March and was warmly received by Iranian readers as they were fighting COVID-19.

Amirkhani visited the North Korean capital of Pyongyang for nine days during June 2018 as a documentarian.

He is also the author of “The Good Smell of Oil”, “Ermia” and several other bestsellers.

In 2019, Amirkhani was nominated for the title of the Islamic Revolution Artist of the Year for his novel “Salvation”. However, he failed to win the title, which is granted by the Art Bureau of the Islamic Ideology Dissemination Organization.

Courtesy of Tehran Times