During Ayatollah Khamenei's visit to the International Book Fair in Tehran, today (Friday), when he visited the stand of Niloufar Publications, like in other stands, he greeted the book vendors, and asked about newly published books. A book attracted his attention, and he asked: “Is this the old four-volume book?” The answer was yes. He then asked: “Who was the translator?” They said: “Abul Hassan Najafi.”
Ayatollah Khamenei said: “Aha! Abul Hassan Najafi: many years ago, Abul Hassan Najafi, with the late Mr. Habibi and some other literature intellectuals visited us. I asked him: ‘Are you the translator of The Thibaults?’ Mr Najafi was surprised that I knew the novel. Later, I admired the novel and offered a critique to his work. Mr Najafi asked, more surprised: 'You have really read all the four volumes? I didn’t think you even heard the title of my book!”
The Leader continued, smiling: “I said, ‘I have read it… God bless late Mr Najafi. The novel The Thibaults was an excellent novel which, unfortunately, did not become as famous as it deserved it."
The Thibaults is a long novel, written by the French author, Roger Martin du Gard, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. This novel explores, on the one hand, the European history in the early years of the twentieth century and during the first World War; on the other hand, it depicts the life events of a French prosperous, bourgeois family: The Thibaults.
