--- product_id: 11871559 title: "The Blind Owl (Authorized by The Sadegh Hedayat Foundation - First Translation into English Based on the Bombay Edition)" price: "€ 39.53" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.sk/products/11871559-the-blind-owl-authorized-by-the-sadegh-hedayat-foundation-first store_origin: SK region: Slovakia --- # The Blind Owl (Authorized by The Sadegh Hedayat Foundation - First Translation into English Based on the Bombay Edition) **Price:** € 39.53 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Blind Owl (Authorized by The Sadegh Hedayat Foundation - First Translation into English Based on the Bombay Edition) - **How much does it cost?** € 39.53 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.sk](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/11871559-the-blind-owl-authorized-by-the-sadegh-hedayat-foundation-first) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Widely regarded as Sadegh Hedayat's masterpiece, the Blind Owl is the most important work of literature to come out of Iran in the past century. On the surface this work seems to be a tale of doomed love, but with the turning of each page basic facts become obscure and the reader soon realizes this book is much more than a love story. Although the Blind Owl has been compared to the works of the Kafka, Rilke and Poe, this work defies categorization. Lescot's French translation made the Blind Owl world-famous, while D.P. Costello's English translation made it largely accessible. Sadly, this work has yet to find its way into the English pantheon of Classics. This 75th anniversary edition, translated by award-winning writer Naveed Noori and published in conjunction with the Hedayat Foundation, aims to change this and is notable for a number of firsts: *The only translation endorsed by the Sadegh Hedayat Foundation *The first translation to use the definitive Bombay edition (Hedayat's handwritten text) *The only available English translation by a native Persian and English speaker *The preface includes a detailed textual analysis of the Blind Owl Finally, by largely preserving the spirit as well as the structure of Hedayat's writing, this edition brings the English reader into the world of the Hedayat's Blind Owl as never before. Extensive footnotes (explaining Persian words, phrases, and customs ignored in previous translations) provide deeper understanding of this work for both the causal reader and the serious student of literature. "....There are indeed marked differences between Costello's and Noori's translations. As Noori indicates, his attempt to preserve the overabundance of dashes gives the reader a more immediate sense of the narrator's agitation...The first sentence flows on in Noori's translation, piling sensation upon sensation never allowing us to pause and catch our breath or separate out the images from the sensations. In his discussion of the relationship between his translation and Costello's, Noori also draws on translation theory and sees Costello's focus on the fluidity of the text in English as a "domestication" of Hedayat's original. Noori's new English translation and his preface are a welcome addition and will no doubt draw the attention of scholars interested in Hedayat's works. The close textual and comparative analysis of the type Noori offers marks a new and long-overdue critical approach to the translation of the most celebrated work of modern Persian prose." -Professor Nasrin Rahimieh in Middle Eastern Literatures Review: A madman commits a gruesome murder. Or does he? - Brilliant in form and content, this novella is a must-read for any lover of psychological thrillers, creative fiction, and foreign literature. It’s for fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, David Foster Wallace, Haruki Murakami, Mark Z. Danielewski, Roberto Bolano, and open minds! Our narrator is a physically and mentally ill man, hurriedly writing down the events that led up to his current condition: covered in blood, awaiting arrest. His chosen audience is his owl-like shadow, reflected on the walls of the room to which he's been confined for seemingly an eternity (repeated references to ancient currency and historic artifacts suggest that he’s been suffering for more than a single lifetime, though he occasionally thinks that the life-changing event in his life occurred only 2 months and 4 days earlier. Bouts of uncontrollable laughter and shrieking punctuate the narrator’s nightmarish existence, as all he is capable of, whether he's asleep or awake, is replaying the same images and scenes over and over: a bruised morning glory flower, a crouching old man in a turban, a beautiful young woman in a black dress, a bone-handled knife, a glazed jug, a butcher. His shadow is his only remaining companion as he grows increasingly detached from "the rabble" - his dismissive term for the incomprehensible people who populate the world beyond his room - and waits for death to grant him the relief he has been begging for. To cope with his unbearable pain, our narrator smokes opium, which further contributes to his hallucinatory state throughout the novel. At a high level, the story is as follows. Our narrator was born to a young merchant father and an Indian temple dancer mother. When his father's identical twin brother seduces his mother, she devises a test. The two men have to go into a dark room with a venomous snake. Whoever walks out alive gets to keep the woman. After a blood-curdling scream, the door opens and his uncle (we think - the men are identical twins, after all - so identical that even the woman couldn't tell them apart!) walks out, white-haired and mentally disturbed. The uncle and the narrator’s mother leave town, leaving the narrator in the care of his paternal aunt. The narrator becomes so enamored of his aunt that when her daughter (his cousin) begins to look like her as she grows older, he decides to take the girl as his wife. This young girl becomes the object of his lifelong obsession, jealousy and paranoia, as he convinces himself that she is a whore who sleeps with multiple lovers while denying him any physical contact in order to torture him. In fact, it appears that he takes the young girl by force in order that family members, in keeping with tradition, will require him to marry her. Eventually, during one of his manic episodes, he again forces himself onto his wife, stabs her and dismembers her body. But the book is written in such a way that there is no real reason to believe that this is an actual murder, rather than just another one of his crazy hallucinations or nightmares, the tauntings of his conscience. Our narrator is unreliable, as the memories he conjures up are, by his own admission, without place or time. Characters seemingly blend into each other: his actions are often no more attributable to him than they are to his father, his uncle, the local butcher, or the old peddler/gravedigger, all of whom might be one person! The same is true of his mother, wife, aunt, and nanny. But throughout these indiscernible scenes and persons from his life, he is convinced of one thing: his loneliness and isolation in a life devoid of purpose or meaning. His obsession with possessing his wife is rivaled only by his obsession with death and being erased out of his miserable existence. This is not an uplifting tale. It is a story of pain and suffering. But it is masterfully woven, moving, sad, and unforgettable. Review: A Fascinating, Non-linear and Unsettling Tale - This edition of "The Blind Owl", by Sadegh Hedayat, and translated by Naveed Noori (who provides a very thorough and informative preface) is a fever dream of mystery, pain, lust, and murder. It has brilliant moments of stream of consciousness, almost lyrical, revelations. Our narrator becomes increasingly unhinged and disconnected from himself and the rest of the world. A short, but sense and wild read. I dug it. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,420,248 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #42 in Middle Eastern Literature (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 367 Reviews | ## Images ![The Blind Owl (Authorized by The Sadegh Hedayat Foundation - First Translation into English Based on the Bombay Edition) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71anExMIbsL.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Media Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A madman commits a gruesome murder. Or does he? *by K***B on July 16, 2021* Brilliant in form and content, this novella is a must-read for any lover of psychological thrillers, creative fiction, and foreign literature. It’s for fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, David Foster Wallace, Haruki Murakami, Mark Z. Danielewski, Roberto Bolano, and open minds! Our narrator is a physically and mentally ill man, hurriedly writing down the events that led up to his current condition: covered in blood, awaiting arrest. His chosen audience is his owl-like shadow, reflected on the walls of the room to which he's been confined for seemingly an eternity (repeated references to ancient currency and historic artifacts suggest that he’s been suffering for more than a single lifetime, though he occasionally thinks that the life-changing event in his life occurred only 2 months and 4 days earlier. Bouts of uncontrollable laughter and shrieking punctuate the narrator’s nightmarish existence, as all he is capable of, whether he's asleep or awake, is replaying the same images and scenes over and over: a bruised morning glory flower, a crouching old man in a turban, a beautiful young woman in a black dress, a bone-handled knife, a glazed jug, a butcher. His shadow is his only remaining companion as he grows increasingly detached from "the rabble" - his dismissive term for the incomprehensible people who populate the world beyond his room - and waits for death to grant him the relief he has been begging for. To cope with his unbearable pain, our narrator smokes opium, which further contributes to his hallucinatory state throughout the novel. At a high level, the story is as follows. Our narrator was born to a young merchant father and an Indian temple dancer mother. When his father's identical twin brother seduces his mother, she devises a test. The two men have to go into a dark room with a venomous snake. Whoever walks out alive gets to keep the woman. After a blood-curdling scream, the door opens and his uncle (we think - the men are identical twins, after all - so identical that even the woman couldn't tell them apart!) walks out, white-haired and mentally disturbed. The uncle and the narrator’s mother leave town, leaving the narrator in the care of his paternal aunt. The narrator becomes so enamored of his aunt that when her daughter (his cousin) begins to look like her as she grows older, he decides to take the girl as his wife. This young girl becomes the object of his lifelong obsession, jealousy and paranoia, as he convinces himself that she is a whore who sleeps with multiple lovers while denying him any physical contact in order to torture him. In fact, it appears that he takes the young girl by force in order that family members, in keeping with tradition, will require him to marry her. Eventually, during one of his manic episodes, he again forces himself onto his wife, stabs her and dismembers her body. But the book is written in such a way that there is no real reason to believe that this is an actual murder, rather than just another one of his crazy hallucinations or nightmares, the tauntings of his conscience. Our narrator is unreliable, as the memories he conjures up are, by his own admission, without place or time. Characters seemingly blend into each other: his actions are often no more attributable to him than they are to his father, his uncle, the local butcher, or the old peddler/gravedigger, all of whom might be one person! The same is true of his mother, wife, aunt, and nanny. But throughout these indiscernible scenes and persons from his life, he is convinced of one thing: his loneliness and isolation in a life devoid of purpose or meaning. His obsession with possessing his wife is rivaled only by his obsession with death and being erased out of his miserable existence. This is not an uplifting tale. It is a story of pain and suffering. But it is masterfully woven, moving, sad, and unforgettable. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Fascinating, Non-linear and Unsettling Tale *by R***N on September 4, 2025* This edition of "The Blind Owl", by Sadegh Hedayat, and translated by Naveed Noori (who provides a very thorough and informative preface) is a fever dream of mystery, pain, lust, and murder. It has brilliant moments of stream of consciousness, almost lyrical, revelations. Our narrator becomes increasingly unhinged and disconnected from himself and the rest of the world. A short, but sense and wild read. I dug it. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent *by Y***H on May 25, 2026* I love it . ## Frequently Bought Together - The Blind Owl - Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.sk/products/11871559-the-blind-owl-authorized-by-the-sadegh-hedayat-foundation-first](https://www.desertcart.sk/products/11871559-the-blind-owl-authorized-by-the-sadegh-hedayat-foundation-first) --- *Product available on Desertcart Slovakia* *Store origin: SK* *Last updated: 2026-09-24*