TEHRAN-Moin Publication has released the Persian translation of the 1954 novel “A Fable” written by the American author William Faulkner. 

The book, which won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award in 1955, has been translated by Mehrdad Moini and Shahabeddin Arjmandi and published in 626 pages, Mehr reported.

Faulkner spent more than a decade and tremendous effort on the book and aspired for it to be “the best work of my life and maybe of my time”.

It is an allegorical story of World War I, set in the trenches in France and dealing ostensibly with a mutiny in a French regiment. Corporal Stefan, who represents the reincarnation of Jesus, orders 3,000 troops to disobey orders to attack in the brutally repetitive trench warfare. In return, the Germans do not attack, and the war stops when soldiers realize that it takes two sides to fight a war. The Generalissimo, who represents leaders who use war to gain power, invites his German counterpart to discuss how to restart the war. He then arrests and executes Stefan. Before Stefan's execution, the Generalissimo tries to convince the corporal that war can never be stopped because it is the essence of human nature.

Faulkner (1897–1962) is known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of his life. A Nobel laureate, Faulkner is one of the most celebrated writers of American literature and often is considered the greatest writer of Southern literature.

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