Kader Abdolah was born in 1954 in Arak, Iran, as Hossein Sadjadi Ghaemmaghami Farahni. He came from a distinguished family (the founder of modern Iranian literature and a prominent politician). As a physics student in Tehran, he became a member of a leftist political party that operated in secret and rebelled first against the Shah and then against the Ayatollahs.

He writes in Dutch under a pseudonym consisting of the names of his fallen friends – Kader and Abdolah. His most famous works are: Falcons , Girls and Partisans , The Journey of Empty Bottles , Cuneiform and The Imam's House .