The prince's concealment

Many Iranian critics consider the short story "Al Amir Ehtijab" to be the starting point of modern Iranian fiction, and they regard its author, Houshang Golshiri, as one of the most influential contemporary Persian short story writers on subsequent generations. Golshiri's influence was not limited to his literary works; his name was also associated with Iran's intellectual and cultural movement. In Iran, Golshiri's name has two sides: the novelist and the intellectual, and these two aspects are clearly intertwined, manifesting in his behavior as an intellectual and in his style as a novelist. He regularly held weekly meetings and workshops at his home to read and discuss narrative works continuously from the 1980s until the end of his life. He began his life as a teacher in villages and worked in journalism, serving as the editor-in-chief of the magazine "Karnameh." He completed the short novel we have before us at the end of the 1960s when he was no more than twenty-eight years old. It narrates the period of power transfer from the Qajar dynasty to the Pahlavi dynasty, where aristocracy was on the brink of destruction, and modernity in traditions and concepts was emerging. Through the techniques of stream of consciousness, he depicted his characters and their stories, approaching ideas of freedom, tyranny, slavery, and the view of women between two eras. This was a writing style that no one else had previously used in Iranian fiction, relying on modern techniques and a deeply insightful view of human beings and their internal struggles. Since then, the novel has been published in several editions, one of which was printed in 2000, the year of his death, and the latest in 2018. It has been translated into English, French, and several other languages. Many books, studies, and academic theses have been written about it. It was also adapted into a film bearing its name, directed by Behnam Farimanara. After his death, an literary foundation and an award bearing his name were established, awarded to selected writers. This award holds high literary value and a special place in contemporary Iranian literature. The author's name is Houshang Golshiri. The publishing house is Taqwin.