(De Geus, 1997, 156 pages)

Abdolah is an unusual and unique voice in Dutch literature because he uses his theme to hold up a mirror to his new compatriots. In his columns, he subtly questions the famous tolerance of the Dutch and the supposedly peaceful coexistence of races and beliefs in the Netherlands. In his third book, the novel De reis van de lege flessen, Abdolah writes about Bolfazl, a refugee from Iran who, together with his wife and child, has to build up a new life in the Netherlands.

(De Geus, 2000, 377 pages)

In 1988, Kader Abdolah fled from Iran and settled in the Netherlands. He had already written two novels and here he continued to write in a new language. This fact is worked in a surprising manner into his third novel, Spijkerschrift. The title refers to the indecipherable symbols in which the deaf, dumb and blind Aga Akbar has recorded his life’s story. This self-invented script can be seen as an attempt to find his own language in a country whose inhabitants are oppressed by the consecutive regimes of the Shah and Khomeni.

(De Geus, 2005, 413 pages)

For eight hundred years the house next to the mosque in the Iranian city of Senejan has been in the hands of one family, which has provided imams for the mosque for generations as well as producing the city’s leading merchants. At the start of the novel, in 1969, Aqa Jaan is Senejan’s most successful merchant and the head of its bazaar. He regards his great-nephew Shahbal as his natural successor.

(De Geus, 2011, 412 pages)

Kader Abdolah’s book The King places him in a tradition that goes back centuries, the tradition of great storytellers with their tales and legends about the illustrious rulers of Persia. There is a particular reason for his choice of material: his great-great-grandfather, Mirza Kabir, was the vizier of Shah Naser, who ruled at the turn of the nineteenth century.