Kelīdar: Dowreh-ye panj-jeldī Persian 2025

Kelidar is the ten-volume masterpiece of Mahmoud Dowlatabadi and one of the most important novels in the Persian language—an expansive, best-selling, and influential work set against the social and political history of Iran in the 1940s. Inspired by the real life of Gol-Mohammad and his family—Kurds forcibly resettled in Khorasan—the novel centers on peasants’ struggle for justice against the oppression of landowners and their collusion with central authority.

Gol-Mohammad, a young rural man driven by a deep sense of justice, becomes involved in romantic and tribal conflicts and unintentionally commits a killing, forcing him into a life in hiding. With the help of comrades and in connection with the activities of the Tudeh Party, he fights to reclaim peasants’ rights and reform the agricultural system—a struggle that gradually sparks widespread awareness and popular resistance.

Written in a rich, regionally rooted Khorasani language, with expansive characterization and meticulous world-building, Kelidar is a long and immersive journey, not a quick read. Though some argue it could be abridged, its devoted readers would not forgo a single line. Beyond a historical narrative, the novel stands as a human epic of struggle, awakening, and lived experience, drawing readers so deeply into its world that, by the end, they feel they have lived twice.