As was the hatred in Western Iran
The novelist Amir Hassan Cheheltan the DIWAN

img_3428On 13 May 2012 put Amir Hassan Cheheltan in Cologne literature house his latest novel “kill Americans in Tehran” before. An irritating title. Provocative and ambivalent he can sit up and arouses curiosity. Who kills whom? An ambivalence that is also reflected in the relationship between the two countries, Iran and United States, which takes up Cheheltan in his book. The author provides his readers in six episodes insight into the historical background of misunderstanding and violence between Iran and the U.S.. From different perspectives of ordinary, simple people can pass Cheheltan the historical events from 1924 to 1988 in review and makes them feel close.

In collaboration with the literary salon DIWAN Association welcomed the writer to the Persian-German reading. Guy Helminger Navid Kermani and talked to him about the second part of Tehran Cheheltans trilogy, and on the particular political and social context in which a writer is working in Iran. And enjoy, “Lezat” that forms in the writing process when you merge the narrative threads. And filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi DIWAN Board presented the evening. Besides the author also gave the actress Caroline Schreiber a touching passage from “kill Americans in Tehran” for the best.

img_3435“Many books are censored either in Iran or not even published. How you deal with that to an author? It influenced the writing? “That was one of the questions of the evening. “I write for me to understand things better,” said Cheheltan. “In order to shed light on ambiguities. And I have neither the first nor the reader different things look. But often it is the case that the Iranian history weighs heavily and painfully on the shoulders of many Iranians. As a writer, I write, therefore, to help to reduce this burden. What censorship concerns: The internet is now apparent that instrument void. That was in the 80s, of course, very different. “Since 2004 Cheheltans publications outside the Islamic Republic to be published, as with many contemporary Iranian authors. He himself lives in Iran. “I hope in the future to also my recent publications in Tehran bookshops.” Until then, they can still be read in German and soon also in English and other European languages.

img_3469The author and engineer Amir Hassan Cheheltan since the 1970s as a writer in Iran from 2001 to 2004 and was on the board of the Iranian Writers’ Association. In Germany, he also wrote for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit. Other publications (Auwahl): Iranian Dawn (2007), Tehran, Revolution Road (2009), Tehran, without city sky (to be published in August 2012)

 

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