TEHRAN (IBNA) -- The novel, ‘A Bell for Adano’ (1944) by John Hersey, the winner of the 1945 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the story of a battle for democracy, fought without arms has been published in Persian.
The book has been rendered into Persian by Kaveh Bolouri. Tehran-based Ney Publishing has released ‘A Bell for Adano’ in 348 pages.
This classic novel tells the story of an Italian-American major in World War II who wins the love and admiration of the local townspeople when he searches for a replacement for the 700-year-old town bell that had been melted down for bullets by the fascists.
Although stituated during one of the most devastating experiences in human history, John Hersey’s story speaks with unflinching patriotism and humanity.
The New Yorker comments on this work: “A well-written, funny, and, at times, serious and deeply disturbing story . . . dogmatically recommended.”
And Christian Science Monitor: “The pictures of the place and the people are masterly, rich in humor and humanity and utter conviction.”
John Richard Hersey was born in Tientsin, China, in 1914 and lived there until 1925, when his family returned to the United States. He studied at Yale and Cambridge, served for a time as Sinclair Lewis’s secretary, and then worked several years as a journalist.
Beginning in 1947 he devoted his time mainly to writing fiction. He won the Pulitzer Prize, taught for two decades at Yale, and was president of the Authors League of America and Chancellor of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Hersey died in 1993.
He is considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling techniques of fiction are adapted to non-fiction reportage.
Hersey’s account of the aftermath of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, was adjudged the finest piece of American journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel associated with New York University’s journalism department.