A review by valentijn
Het huis van de moskee by Kader Abdolah

challenging dark emotional reflective relaxing medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

A beautiful book about the clashing of the eternity of tradition with ever changing nature of time. The story narrates the life of the keeper of an ancient mosque starting at the reign of the last Shah and ending after Iran-Iraq war. It is a story about how getting what you want isn't always what you need, how the revolution can eat it's own children, and how the flow of time can make a liberal conservative or vice versa. The book has beautiful near poetic sentence structure that I really enjoyed and that lends from the great Persian literary tradition.