Review · Radio Zamaneh
Waiting for the catastrophe
A reading of Daniel and His Father in which inherited violence and narrative warnings disturb a single day.
- Credited to
- Esfandiar Kusheh
- Publication
- Radio Zamaneh
- Source date
- 23 January 2023
- Published language
- Persian
- This page
- English source guide
Works discussed
Original English editorial guide to the attributed Persian-language source. The critic’s interpretations remain theirs; the full source stays with its publisher.
A day that will not settle
Kusheh follows Sia, a carer for older people, across the short interval in which the birth of his child forces an unwelcome encounter with fatherhood. The narrator’s nightmare and repeated warnings prepare the reader for catastrophe, while ordinary journeys and objects become threatening. Source 1
The review connects the novel with both the killing of a father and the killing of a son. Rather than letting a familiar myth settle the outcome, Kusheh sees the narrative as keeping possibilities in motion. The newborn brings old fears into a present the narrator cannot control. Source 1
A different geography, enduring habits
Migration matters to the review because changing a place of residence has not necessarily changed the characters’ inherited relations. Kusheh reads coldness, mistrust and fragile households alongside the narrator’s tendency to withdraw from people. The largely empty urban atmosphere belongs to this interpretation of the novel. Source 1
He also distinguishes what the narrator claims about himself from what particular gestures allow the reader to see. The review’s observations about women, care and injured lives make the character’s perspective available for scrutiny. They are critical readings, rather than statements about Rabihavi’s own family. Source 1
Sources & credits
- Esfandiar Kusheh · Daniel and His Father
Persian review, 23 January 2023. Reads the novel through impending catastrophe, fatherhood, migration and changing narrative expectations.