A jar of Hushang Moradi Kermani jam.

The jar of jam by Hushang Moradi Kermani is the delicate story of an Iranian boy who one morning, at breakfast, unable to open a jar of jam for breakfast, stubbornly tries to find the cause and solution to this mishap. On the one hand the adult world tries to dissuade him in every way, on the other reason supports him to go ahead with his denunciation and his investigation.

The publication of this story is the result of an academic activity dedicated to translation techniques from Persian into Italian and at the same time of an intense collaborative work between two students, Irene Calegaro and Dario Mazzocchi who enthusiastically accepted the proposal of their Persian language teacher, Daniela Meneghini.

The preface by Daniela Meneghini, who introduces the author and the work, and the afterword by Giacomo Longhi, who places this text in the national panorama of translations of literature for young adults from Persian into Italian, open and close the volume by framing the text in the field of contemporary Iranian literature and the publishing activity dedicated to this kind of texts in our country.

The author

Hushang Moradi Kermani is one of the major contemporary Iranian writers, particularly famous for his books for young adults. He was a finalist in 2014 of the biennial International Hans Christian Andersen Award and several times nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Born in 1944 in the village of Sirc, near the city of Kerman in south-central Iran, he studied dramatic arts in Tehran where he majored in English translation. He began his artistic career with radio in 1961. His many novels which enjoy enormous success in Iran have been translated into English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, Korean, Greek and Turkish. From his books a television series and two feature films dedicated respectively to this story and to Khomre (L'Anfora) were made. For Italian readers, the translation of this last novel is also available, which was one of his greatest successes (L'anfora, Venice, 2019).

Hushang Moradi Kermani's jam jar
Original title: مربای شيرين (Morabbā-ye shirin)
Translation: by Irene Calegaro and Dario Mazzocchi
Preface, revision and editing of the text: Daniela Meneghini
Afterword: Giacomo Longhi
Cover: Irene Calegaro

Edition: Cà foscarina