Collaboration with Reza Abdoh: Quotations from a Ruined City
In addition to his work as a novelist, Salar Abdoh has also collaborated with his late brother, Reza Abdoh, the avant-garde theater director known for his provocative and experimental works. The brothers co-wrote the play Quotations from a Ruined City (1994), which explores themes of destruction, decay, and the ruins of civilization. The play was produced shortly before Reza Abdoh’s death from AIDS in 1995, and it remains a significant part of Salar Abdoh’s body of work, showcasing his versatility as a writer across different forms of storytelling.
Reza Abdoh’s influence on Salar’s work is palpable in the themes of fragmentation and existential crisis that pervade much of Salar’s fiction. Both brothers were deeply concerned with the ways in which political and social systems fail individuals, leaving them to navigate the ruins of their own lives. Quotations from a Ruined City is a haunting reflection on the collapse of civilization and the human cost of war and violence, themes that Salar would continue to explore in his novels.