Sadegh Hedayat - The Blind Owl

A disturbing masterpiece....

In life there are certain sores that, like a canker, gnaw at the soul in solitude and diminish it

— The beginning phrase of the book

The Blind Owl (Persian: بوف کور, Būf-e Kūrlisten^ⓘ) is a Persian novella by Sadegh Hedayat that is about an isolated, unnamed narrator who recounts his obsessive love for an enigmatic woman and his gradual descent into psychological fragmentation, conveyed through a dark, hallucinatory narrative in which reality, memory, and nightmare become indistinguishable. It was published in 1315 SH (1936 or 1937) and is considered to be Hedayat's magnum opus.

AuthorSadegh HedayatOriginal titleبوف کورLanguagePersianGenreGothicPublished1315 SH (1936 or 1937)Preceded byThe Songs of Khayyam Followed byThe Stray Dog