A very brief account of the killing of former prime minister Hoveyda is one of the most shocking scenes in this part of the novel.
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- and the book he is reading, Morier's funny The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Esfahan.
Teheran |
The beauty of Venice and its cultural and artistic lifestyle, in the presence of creative figures like Peggy Guggenheim, Lucio Fontana, Allen Ginsberg, Ezra Pound, Carlo Scarpa in the Sixties and Seventies, influenced him to such an extent that he decided to settle there, moving away from his original area of intellectual life in Teheran: a decision which was basic to his consecutive formation.
After the war he wrote several novels including: A Flag in the City (1953), his first novel which was about WWII British intelligence in Teheran and their plans to destroy Germany's fifth column operations in Persia; Stone Cold Dead in the Market; Hornet's Nest; Dead Men Rise Up Never; and Unseen Enemy (aka The Shadow of Time).
He also wrote An Historical and Descriptive Account of Persia (1834); A Winter's Journey ((Tâtar,) from Constantinople to Teheran (1838); Travels in Koordistan, Mesopotamia, etc. (1840) Mesopotamia and Assyria (1842); and Military Memoirs of Col. James Skinner (1851).
Born in Teheran, Hadjian fled Iran with her family in 1979 after the islamic revolution, and was raised first in London and later in Norway when her family settled on Kråkerøy in Fredrikstad.