Abbas Maroufi

“What a repository is my memory! Why does my memory transcend now and then and embrace the whole history? All accompany me in my memory and I am absent from everybody’s memory”.
“Excerpts from “Year of Turmoil” by Abbas Maroufi”
A graduate of Fine Arts from Tehran University with a prodigious artistic talent, Maroufi has been director of Tehran Symphony Orchestra, founder of Tehran-based literary Gardoon magazine, and author of numerous award winning and widely read novels. His “Symphony of the Dead” written in keeping with movements of a musical symphony displays formative impact of his background in music on his writing. Belonging to the post-revolution generation of Iranian writers, his novels focus on individual struggles with social and historical dogma. Translations of Maroufi’s writings into other languages have brought him international readership and praise by winning awards from “Arnold Zweig Foundation” and “Surkamp Publishing House” for German translations of his works. The style of Maroufi’s writings and his commitment to freedom of expression led to his forced migration to Germany where he founded Gardoon Press and Publishing House.