What to read after The Cannon (Tup), A Novel?

 The Cannon is the first and best of Gholamhossein Saedi’s three full-length novels. The action is based on historical events taking place in northwestern part of Iran during the constitutional Revolution in the earlier part of the twentieth century. It has an unwavering focus on a single character, that of Mullah Mir Hashem, and develops the plot based on the specificities of that character.  Other interesting characters also emerge in the course of the action, but Saedi successfully avoids a diffusion of focus, utilizing ancillary characters to enrich the role of the protagonist in the development of the plotline. The action involves an itinerant mullah who for many years has ministered to the religious and spiritual needs of the tribes scattered in the Azarbaijan province. In the process he has accumulated a small fortune in the form of herds of sheep that he relegates to the care of various tribes. With the rising tide of the Constitutional Revolution and the direct intervention of Russian troops in the northern territories in support of the central government in Tehran in an effort to prevent the eruption of the tribal region, the mullah faces a dilemma whether to ingratiate himself with the commanding general of the Cossack division to protect his interests in case of a conflagration, or to side with the tribes who increasingly display a tendency to join the revolutionaries in Tabriz, the provincial capital. The plot climbs to an exciting climax and the story comes to an unpredictable and intriguing end.