TEHRAN -- An Iranian writer has drawn inspiration from Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” to write his novel “Ninety-Nine Years of Solitude”, whose story is set in Khorramshahr in 1980 when the southwestern Iranian city was captured by Iraqi forces.
“My interest in Marquez dates back to the years between 1985 and 1987 when I was working at a telecommunications installation,” Mohammad Bodaqi told the Persian service of IRNA on Friday.
“I read his ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ for the first time at the base and loaned it to other soldiers to read,” he added.
“The central character of the novel is a teenage schoolboy who borrows ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ from his teacher. Meanwhile, Iraq begins its war against Iran and occupies Khorramshahr. The student joins the volunteer forces to defend his hometown. In addition, he tries to preserve the book in order to give it back to his teacher,” Bodaqi stated.
He said that he has done his best to make a connection between “One Hundred Years of Solitude” and the events of the novel.
“I included some parts of Marquez’s masterpiece in my novel in order to add to its attraction and also to acknowledge my debt to this great writer of the world,” he added.
Bodaqi said that he had completed two chapters of his novel when he received news of Marquez’s death.
“Hope as a world motto and ideal can be read between the lines in ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’,” he stated and added that he has followed the same style in his novel.
Bodaqi is the author of “The Veteran”, “I’m from Kashan”, “The Forgotten Battle” and several other works, all of which are about the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war.
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