Dardedel: Rumi, Hafez & Love in New York
by Manoucher Parvin
Category: Fiction

A most unusual novel is Manoucher Parvin’s Dardedel: Rumi, Hafez, and Lovein New York. For starters, it’s written in free verse. For another, it contrasts the world of thirteenth and fourteenth century Persia with that of present day New York, by bringing back to life the famed Persian poets Rumi and Hafez, who reincarnate themselves to help a suicidal Persian-American professor. It provides a double love story (is not Hafez still considered today to be one of the ablest poets of love?) and also touches on the nature of things (which is one of the reasons Rumi is still widely read throughout the world).