Abbas Maroufi

Abbas Maroufi was born in Tehran on 17 May 1957. He studied dramatic literature at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Tehran and, alongside his writing, taught literature for a period. His first story collection, Facing the Sun, was published in 1980, and his literary work subsequently encompassed short fiction, novels, plays, and journalism.

Maroufi is best known for Symphony of the Dead, published in 1989 and regarded as a landmark of contemporary Persian fiction. Through a polyphonic structure and techniques such as stream of consciousness, the novel narrates the disintegration of a family in Ardabil. The Year of Tumult, The Body of Farhad, Fereydoun Had Three Sons, Melted, and Entirely Special are among his other important novels. Family and social relations, the suppression of individuality, memory, death, loneliness, and life amid political and social upheaval are central to his fiction.

Another important part of Maroufi’s career was his cultural and journalistic work. In 1990, he founded and edited the literary magazine Gardoon. The journal became one of the important literary forums of its period, but its activity was eventually halted. Following political pressure and the banning of Gardoon, Maroufi left Iran in the mid-1990s and settled in Germany.

In Germany, he continued his cultural work and founded the Hedayat House of Arts and Literature in Berlin, a space associated with a bookshop, publishing, and creative-writing classes. During his years in exile, he continued to write and publish literary works, some of which were translated into other languages.

After developing cancer, Abbas Maroufi died in Berlin on 1 September 2022. His literary legacy is especially associated with formal experimentation in the novel, polyphonic narration, and the intertwining of individual and family histories with the history and society of contemporary Iran.