TEHRAN – “A Life in Words: Conversations with I. B. Siegumfeldt” by Paul Auster and I. B. Siegumfeldt has been published in Persian by Ofoq.

Originally published in 2017, the book has been translated by Shahrzad Lolachi.

“A Life in Words”, a wide-ranging dialogue between Auster and the Danish professor I. B. Siegumfeldt, is a remarkably candid and sharply focused investigation into one writer’s art, craft and life. 

It includes many revelations that have never before been shared. This is a book that is full of surprises, composed of spoken words that sometimes jump off the page like good drama.
           
The conversations between Auster and Siegumfeldt went on for three years, starting in 2011 and continuing after there was a complete draft in revisions. 

All twenty-one of Auster’s narrative works are covered, as well as all the themes and obsessions that drive the work, and the man.

The book has been acclaimed by critical and literary circles.

“I believe this is a very important book for people who want to know what it means to be a writer,” Barry Gifford wrote.

“The most distinguished American writer of [his] generation… indeed its only author… with any claim to greatness,” the Spectator commented.

“Nabokov once said ‘I divide literature into two categories, the books I wish I had written, and the books I have written.’ In the former category I would put books by Kurt Vonnegut, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth and Paul Auster,” Umberto Eco said in the Paris Review.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of “A Life in Words: Conversations with I. B. Siegumfeldt”.

MMS/YAW