«The Death of Ivan Ilyich» and «Symphony of the Dead» Top Bestseller List

According to a report by the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) correspondent, based on the sales statistics and the list of bestselling books in the virtual section of the 36th Tehran International Book Fair, published based on the number of copies sold, Leo Tolstoy’s literary masterpiece «The Death of Ivan Ilyich» ranked second among all works and first among books in the field of literature, with 4525 copies sold.

«The Death of Ivan Ilyich» is a philosophical and psychological novel that narrates the life of a man successful in social life, but who faces challenge and mental collapse when confronted with imminent death. Tolstoy uses death in this psychological and philosophical novel as a tool to demonstrate the value of life. The author’s ultimate message in the book is that the meaning of being human amidst daily routines should not be forgotten. The main character, only after facing death, realizes that he has never truly lived and has spent his entire life pursuing career advancement and other meaningless endeavors. Then, in the short time remaining until death, he seeks the meaning of life. It can be said that «The Death of Ivan Ilyich» is the story of people who fall prey to societal constraints, live by them, and seek pleasure according to them, but ultimately nothing remains for them except the terrible simplicity of conforming to the usual course of life and achieving usual successes, and they find themselves utterly alone in the face of death.

Regarding the reason for the high sales of this work, perhaps the most important reason can be attributed to its promotion by Mehran Modiri in the program «Ketabbaz»; furthermore, perhaps Iranian youth read psychological and philosophical novels to better understand their own and others’ emotions and feelings and achieve peace amidst the numerous crises that endanger their mental health.

In subsequent rankings, titles by great figures of Iranian and world literature are seen, at the top of which are «Symphony of the Dead» by Abbas Maroufi with 3158 copies, «The Stranger» by Albert Camus with 2751 copies, «Wet Gunpowder» with 2384 copies, and «White Nights: A Sentimental Novel from the Diary of a Dreamer» with 2002 copies, all of which have achieved good sales.

The book «Symphony of the Dead» is a novel written by Abbas Maroufi that narrates the collapse of a family. The story of this work is set in Ardabil shortly after World War II. Orhan Orkhani, a well-known figure in the city, decides to find his brother during a very cold and ruthless winter. Throughout this one-day search, the entire history of the Orkhani family is revealed to the reader in sections bearing the title of ‘movement,’ in the style of a symphony. The problems of the Orkhani family are narrated from the different perspectives of the father and each of his four children, reflecting various aspects of life in a patriarchal and oppressive society; a society that incites brother against brother, forces a father to disown his son and burn his poems, and compels a daughter to remain in a failed marriage.

In a part of this work, we read: «Whatever mother wanted to say, she said, and as always, she would get busy eating and washing dishes. Aydin, just as he was about to think of his father, who seemed to have returned home from the shop with that small body just yesterday, and with that black papakh and gray coat, slowly ascended the stairs, suddenly that strange grandeur and lasting presence would fade from his memory and turn into a few bones under the soil in the old cemetery of the city.»

Abbas Maroufi’s novel «The Year of Chaos» has also been among the bestsellers of this year’s virtual exhibition, indicating that this author is one of the most popular literary figures of our time, engaging various segments of society with his stories. Maroufi has narrated the novel «The Year of Chaos» in the form of memories in the mind of the main character, a girl named Nushafarin. Nusha, the daughter of an influential man named Colonel Niloufar, goes to a small town near Semnan province called Sangsar to advance in her career. The Colonel believes his daughter is worthy enough to become the Queen of Iran and is determined to create the best life for Nusha, but things do not go as simply as he thought, and Nusha falls into the vortex of love with a mysterious potter.

Other bestselling books in the field of literature on this list include «One Hundred Years of Solitude» by Gabriel García Márquez, «Savushun» by Simin Daneshvar, «Her Eyes» by Bozorg Alavi, «The Little Prince» by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, «1984» by George Orwell, and «The Second Funeral of Lady Death», which have sold between 1900 and 1300 copies.

Other literary works mentioned in the bestseller statistics include «Crime and Punishment», «Notes from Underground» and «Nazanin; A Fictional Story» by Fyodor Dostoevsky, «The Fall» and «The Plague» by Albert Camus, and «A Quiet Romance» by Nader Ebrahimi, each of which has sold between 1200 and 900 copies.

A review of these statistics shows that visitors to the Tehran Virtual Book Fair have paid special attention to classic and modern classic works of world fiction, and these works, as well as prominent contemporary Iranian novels such as «Symphony of the Dead» and «Savushun», continue to be attractive to fiction readers. In this context, the production of series and films from literary works and the collaboration of artistic figures in introducing valuable literary works, including Mehran Modiri’s initiative to attract his audience to read «The Death of Ivan Ilyich», are factors that can influence the popularity and sales of books.