TEHRAN – “The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories” by American novelist Carson McCullers has been published in Persian.

Published by Mahi, the 1951 novel has been rendered into Persian by Amir-Abbas Alizadeh.

It is a classic work that has charmed generations of readers. This collection assembles McCullers’s best stories, including her beloved novella “The Ballad of the Sad Café.” 

A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose café serves as the town’s gathering place. 

Among other fine works, the collection also includes “Wunderkind”, McCullers’s first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. 

“The Ballad of the Sad Café” is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South’s finest writers.

McCullers was an American who wrote fiction, often described as Southern Gothic that explores the spiritual isolation of misfits and outcasts of the South.

From 1935 to 1937, she divided her time, as her studies and health dictated, between Columbus and New York and in September 1937 she married an ex-soldier and aspiring writer, Reeves McCullers. 

They began their married life in Charlotte, North Carolina where Reeves had found some work. There, and in Fayetteville, North Carolina, she wrote her first novel, “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”, in the Southern Gothic tradition.

“The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter”, written at the age of twenty-three, was filmed in 1968 with Alan Arkin in the lead role. 

Her “Reflections in a Golden Eye” was directed by John Huston (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. Some scenes of the film were shot in New York City and on Long Island, where Huston was permitted to use an abandoned Army installation.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of “The Ballad of the Sad Café and Other Stories” by Carson McCullers.

MMS