TEHRAN – A Persian translation of Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury’s book “Gate of the Sun” has been published in Tehran.

The book was a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year, one of Kansas City Star’s 100 Noteworthy Books of the Year, a Boldtype Notable Book of the Year, a Christian Science Monitor Best Book of the Year and a San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of the Year.

The book published by Ney has been rendered into Persian by Narges Qandilzadeh.

Drawing on the stories he gathered from refugee camps over the course of many years, Elias Khoury’s epic novel “Gate of the Sun” has been called the first magnum opus of the Palestinian saga.

Yunes, an aging Palestinian freedom fighter, lies in a coma. Keeping vigil at the old man’s bedside is his spiritual son, Khalil, who nurses Yunes, refusing to admit that his hero may never regain consciousness.

Like a modern-day Scheherazade, Khalil relates the story of Palestinian exile while also recalling Yunes’s own extraordinary life and his love for his wife, whom he meets secretly over the years at Bab al-Shams, the Gate of the Sun.

Khoury is also a playwright and critic. He has published ten novels, which have been translated into several foreign languages, as well as several works of literary criticism. 

He has also written three plays. He currently serves as editor of Al-Mulhaq, the weekly cultural supplement of the Lebanese daily newspaper Al-Nahar, and is a prominent public intellectual.

He is a professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at New York University.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian translation of Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury’s book “Gate of the Sun”.

MMS/YAW