The book “The Strange Story of a Birthday Party” is about the martyr Mahdi Sameni Rad, one of the defenders of the shrine in Syria, and it’s written by Javad Kalateh.

Regarding why he wrote this book, this author stated that he met Mahdi Sameni after his martyrdom and by chance. “For this purpose, the interviews with the family, friends and comrades of him started in 2015 and then I started writing the book in 2017,” he added.

Kalate pointed to the way of writing the book and said that the book is written in a narrative and fictional documentary style. 

According to the author, this book has 17 chapters and 340 pages. From the beginning to the middle of it, it deals with his childhood, his cultural activities, and marriage, which is very interesting. In fact, the first chapters of the book have a look at the personal and family life of him.

“In my opinion, what is more important in the book is the second half of the book, which tells the story of the war and the life of this noble martyr in Syria,” he said.

He stated that the war in Syria has many unknown parts and somehow appeals to all audiences. This importance expands further when a unique war with paramilitary and non-classical groups takes place in unknown territory.

“Generally, we have written or read a lot of books and content about the war imposed by Iraq against Iran, but it is very difficult to write about wars that have guerrilla rules,” said Kalateh.

“I believe that the message should be hidden in the book itself to make an impact on the audience. The life of martyrs like MAhdi Sameni Rad is full of lessons, but when the personality of this person becomes effective for the reader, when the audience sees and understands it from layer by layer of events and memories in the book,” he said. 

Regarding the reasons for choosing the name "The Strange Story of a Birthday Party", Kalate noted that the name of the book is somewhat a secret in the last two chapters of the book that the audience should read.