Lu’batkan

Mehrdad Sadeghi, the creator of the popular Ab-Nabat (Candy) series, this time offers his audience a fantasy and mystery novel. In his latest work, Labatkan, published by Soureh Mehr, he crosses a new boundary and steps into the world of myth—an imaginative realm deeply rooted in the Shahnameh and Iranian culture. Over the past years, Mehrdad Sadeghi has gained wide recognition among Iranian readers through his Ab-Nabat story collections (Cardamom Candy, Coconut Candy, Lemon Candy, and Cinnamon Candy), presenting a distinctive brand of humor and an unconventional narrative style. This time, however, he takes a different path—one in which imagination, enigma, myth, and history are intricately interwoven. Labatkan won third place in the novel category at the closing ceremony of the Fourth National Epic Fiction Award, held in October 2024 (Mehr 1403) near the Tomb of Ferdowsi, where it also received the National Award emblem and a certificate of appreciation.

In a passage from the book, we read:
“A caravan reaches a caravanserai in the desert. The caravan leader senses that they are about to be attacked. Among the travelers is a sage who carries a mysterious ring and an unfinished book that he must deliver to certain people. Before the journey, a puppet master (Labatkan player) entrusted the ring and the book to the sage and warned him not to wear the ring until he found their final owner. At night, the sage unwittingly slips the ring onto his finger. Bandits attack, and a storm breaks out. Years later, a group of university students set out to visit the same caravanserai. The building is under restoration. A worker accidentally finds the ring, and …”, “Women in whom the seed of love has been planted are true fairies—who will ultimately either become forgotten loners, or, like the legendary fairy of the wind, be left with dreams blown away.”