TEHRAN – An audiobook featuring short stories by Swiss writer Peter Bichsel has been released for Persian audience.

The stories are from his classic collection “And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like to Meet the Milkman”, which was first published in 1964, “Children’s Stories” and another collection by the writer.

Avaye Chirok, a major Iranian platform offering audiobook services for the Persian audience, is the publisher of the audiobook.

Eighteen narrators, including Khadijeh Mirkhani, Ainaz Khosrozadeh, Saba Seraj, Leila Naderi and Donya Najafi, recount the stories. Their performances have been directed by Bahman Vakhshour.

The audiobook also features contributions from the narrators Yas Jafari, Maryam Naseri, Nasim Baqeri, Sepideh Vakhshouri, Shayesteh Safavian, Shirin Soltani, Zeinab Hajihosseini, Jaleh Akbari, Fatemeh Serajzadeh, Hura Emadi, Zeinab Afkhami, and Sepideh Gudarzi.

The audiobook has been produced based on a Persian translation by Ehsan Keshavarzian, which was published Aftabkaran in 2020.

As one of Bichsel’s most well-known works, “And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like to Meet the Milkman” is considered a classic collection of stories in which he managed to create something unique both for his and for our own time: in a laconic, almost emotionless, yet precisely observed and thereby touching way he records daily events and manages to extract their stories, which possess all the world-truth and depth of an epic.

The collection and “Children’s Stories”, intended for adults, are written in the form of droll tales for children. 

Both books were translated from the German by English poet Michael Hamburger. 

A theme of Bichsel’s works for younger readers is the stubborn desire of children to take words literally and wreak havoc on the world of communicated ideas. 

He has been a member of the Berlin Academy of Arts and a corresponding member of the German Academy for Language and Literature in Darmstadt since 1985. 

He has been awarded numerous prizes, including the 2012 Grand Prix Schiller, 2011 Solothurner Literaturpreis and 1999 Gottfried Keller Prize.

Photo: Cover of a Persian audiobook featuring short stories by the Swiss writer Peter Bichel.

MMS/YAW