Minu onu Napoleon - Iradž Pezeškzad

In the novel "My Uncle Napoleon", Iraj Pezeškzad paints an ironic picture of an upper-class family in 1940s Tehran, whose members are ridiculously proud of their "aristocratic" origins. Family relations in Iran under the Shah's rule are necessarily characterized by submission to the authority of the head of the family - in the novel, the eldest brother, Uncle Napoleon (although his sanity may be doubted in hindsight).

The novel can be read as a burlesque farce, and references to Iranian folk theater are also seen in it; at the same time, parallels with the Western comedy genre can be found there. Every satirical work is inevitably related to the circumstances and phenomena of its time, but "My Uncle Napoleon" certainly offers reading pleasure even to those who are not familiar with the cultural history of Iran.

Iraj Pezeškzad was born in 1928 in Tehran in a wealthy family. He studied in Iran and France, then worked as a judge and diplomat in Iranian embassies and has also been Iran's foreign minister. Already in the 1950s, he started writing short stories and novels. His best-known work, My Uncle Napoleon, was made into Iran's most popular television series of all time.