TEHRAN – Dutch author Gerard Reve’s debut novel “The Evenings: A Winter’s Tale” (De avonden) has recently been published in Persian by Elmi Publications in Tehran.

Translated by Morteza Gholami, the 1947 book is about 23-year-old Frits, an office worker, daydreamer and teller of inappropriate jokes, who finds life absurd and inexplicable. 

He lives with his parents, who drive him mad. He has terrible, disturbing dreams of death and destruction. Sometimes he talks to a toy rabbit.

In ten chapters, the book tells the story of ten evenings in Frits’ life at the end of December 1946, as he drinks, smokes, sees friends, aimlessly wanders the gloomy city streets and tries to make sense of the minutes, hours and days that stretch before him.

In 2007, “The Evenings” was named as one of the top 10 Dutch language novels of all time by readers of the newspaper NRC Handelsblad.

The book has been adapted into movies, plays and comic books, including a film adaptation, “Evenings” by Dutch director Rudolf van den Berg in 1989. 

The film won two Golden Calf awards for best film and best actor at the Netherlands Film Festival.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian version of Dutch author Gerard Reve’s novel “The Evenings: A Winter’s Tale”.

ABU/MMS/YAW