One of Hedayat’s most famous novels, Būf-e Kūr (1937; The Blind Owl), is profoundly pessimistic and Kafkaesque. A deeply melancholy man, he lived with a vision of the absurdity of human existence and his inability to effect a change for the good in homeland. He withdrew from his friends and began to seek escape from his sense of futility in drugs and alcohol. In 1951, overwhelmed by despair, he left capital and went to Paris, where he took his own life.