Iraj Pezeshkzad ( ایرج پزشکزاد ) born 1928 in Tehran is an Iranian writer and author of the famous Persian novel Dā’i Jān Napoleon (Dear Uncle Napoleon, translated as My Uncle Napoleon) published in the early 1970s.
He was educated in Iran and France, where he received his degree in Law. He served as a judge in the Iranian Judiciary for five years prior to joining the Iranian Foreign Service. He served as a diplomat until the Iranian revolution in 1979, and left the Foreign Service to reside in France after the revolution, where he joined Shapour Bakhtiar and his party the National Movement of Iranian Resistance against the Islamic regime established in Iran.
He began writing in the early 1950s by translating the works of Voltaire and Molière into Persian and by writing short stories for magazines. He has also written several plays and various articles on theIranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911, the French Revolution, and the Russian Revolution.
His most famous work My Uncle Napoleon earned him national acclaim and was accoladed by Iranian and international critics alike as a cultural phenomenon. It is a social satire and a masterpiece of contemporary Persian literature. The story is set in a garden in Tehran in the early 1940s at the onset of the Second World War, where three families live under the tyranny of a paranoid patriarch nicknamed Dear Uncle Napoleon.
The book was turned into a highly successful television series soon after its publication and immediately captured the imagination of the whole nation. Its story became a cultural reference point and its characters national icons. The book has been translated to English by Dick Davis as well as a number of other languages including French, German, and Russian.
His most recent novel is Khanevade-ye Nik-Akhtar (The Nik-Akhtar Family) and he has recently published his autobiography titled Golgashtha-ye Zendegi (The Pleasure-grounds of Life).
He is currently living in Paris where he works as a journalist.
His novels include:
- Haji Mam-ja’far in Paris
- Mashalah Khan in the Court of Haroun al-Rashid
- Asemun Rismun
- Honar-e Mard beh ze Dolat-e oost
- Dai Jan Napoleon.
Buy his books My Uncle Napoleon and Asemun Rismun on Amazon.
