Melik Mehemmed and the apple tree

Melik Mehemmed and the apple tree

Leili Khodai’s new book, and her first in the Netherlands, will be published soon and is currently in the final stages of illustration. This book is a translation and adaptation of an Azerbaijani folktale for children. Leili Khodai — writer, poet, and filmmaker — has reimagined this tale and translated it into Dutch.

She says: “Yalda Night is the longest night of the year, and in Iran, Azerbaijan, and some other countries, we celebrate it. It’s a traditional celebration marked by eating watermelon, pomegranate seeds, and gathering the family around the eldest member. That night, children are allowed to stay up late and listen to stories and folktales told by their grandparents. I heard this particular tale from my father and grandfather on Yalda Night. A few years later, when I was eleven, I lost my father on my birthday. Just as we were preparing for the celebration and he was on his way to bring the cake and other things, we received the news that he had died in a car accident. After that, all Yalda nights felt lonely — no one told me stories anymore. In the first years after my father's death, I would ask every bookstore where I could find that story or book, but no one knew its author. Thirty years later, I searched for it again online and this time I found a few pages in the archives of the Folklore Literature Academy of Azerbaijan. A very brief version of what I had heard from my father. I decided to rewrite it and translate it into Dutch. The version I found was less than ten pages long, and my book is nearly ninety pages.”