Missing Soluch

Missing Soluch (Persian: جای خالی سلوچ Ja-ye Khali-ye Soluch; 1979) is a novel by Iranian author Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, translated from the Persian by Kamran Rastegar in 2007. It was shortlisted for the 2008 Best Translated Book Award. Dowlatabadi wrote it in just 70 days, after he was released from prison, having composed it in memory while in jail. The novel was written between the second and third volume of his 10-volume novel, Kelidar. It was the first complete standalone novel of the author written in the everyday language of the people, Persian, and was hugely influential at the time of Revolutionary Iran for its sympathetic depiction of the proletariat, which was new in modern Iranian literature. It was Dowlatabad's first novel to be translated into English (2007).