TEHRAN -- An English version of the Iranian satirical novel “Democracy or DemoCrazy” was promoted during a ceremony at the 27th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) on Sunday.
Written by Seyyed Mehdi Shojaei, the book was translated into English by the American Iranologist Caroline Croskery, and was published by the Candle and Fog Publishing House.
Shojaei, Croskery and the director of the London-based Iranian publisher Candle and Fog, Afshin Shahnetabar, attended the ceremony.
Croskery praised “Democracy or DemoCrazy” for its theme and satirical tone, and added that these elements make the book interesting for American readers.
She said that despite the large population of Iranians in the U.S., Persian literature has not been widely introduced in the country.
She has previously translated the Persian poem collection “We Are All Sunflowers” composed by Erfan Nazar-Ahari.
By writing “Democracy or DemoCrazy”, Shojaei said that he aimed to criticize democracy in a novel, which is not bound to a particular time frame.
He said that the language of the book has been artfully transferred in English version.
The book is a narration related by a historical researcher about a nowhere land in an ancient time, in which according to the king’s testimony, each one of his 25 sons succeeds to the throne for a period of two years. However the order of their succession is according to the people’s vote not their age.
The Persian version of the book, which came out in Iran in 2008, was recently republished by the Neyestan Publications in order to be offered at the Tehran International Book Fair.
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