Description

‘Brutal, bold but beautiful, this erotic tale of illicit queer love will hold you breathless in its grasp until the final sentence’ Sunday Post

‘A beautiful, engrossing twist on a modern love story … a literary debut that that ought to be read far and wide’ Buzz Magazine

Anjir and Zal have been lovers in Iran since they were young, but must keep this secret or risk execution. When Zal is attacked after being caught with another man, Anjir is heartbroken by the betrayal but chooses to forgive, as the pair formulate a plan to live together. The government will help to fund a trans person’s surgeries and Anjir will legally become a woman. Then the two of them can move away under new identities.

When Zal vanishes, leaving only a cryptic note, Anjir must embark on a quest through Tehran’s queer underground in search of him. But someone is tailing Anjir too, and soon he suspects that he will have to commit violent acts of his own.

A myth-infused love story of vengeance and desire, Medusa of the Roses is a provocative, page-turning novel with the wild intensity of a fever dream.

Publisher Review

Very rarely does a book come along that you feel might save lives, including your own. In giving voice to the ultimate voiceless in Iran, Sinaki has written a witty and wild tale truly for the best of our beloved angels and devils. He has taken our shared cultures and done something none of us Iranian writers have managed: he gets to the heart of the damaged and damaging politics of our homeland by turning despair into art that’s so invigorating and thrilling, we quite nearly have a new genre. Medusa of the Roses is the most dynamic literary debut, certainly of the Iranian queer canon, I have ever read! — Porochista Khakpour, author Sons & Other Flammable Objects and Tehrangeles Navid Sinaki’s writing is really, really something. Reading Medusa of the Roses not only pleasures through its chaseable story and meticulously tuned characters, it offers the non-stop bedazzlement of some of the most intoxicating and yet exacting prose I’ve read in ages. It’s a rush of a novel, and honestly kind of perfect. — Dennis Cooper, author of I Wished Navid Sinaki flips noir on its head in this propulsive, twisting novel about creating identity against formative love in an oppressive society. Sexy, raw, and perfectly paced, Medusa of the Roses will get under your skin. — Julia Fine, author of Maddalena and the Dark Medusa of the Roses is a beautiful, fast-paced melodrama, a campy, queer reimagining of mid-century noir set in Iran, bloody and poetic in equal measure. — Kyle Dillon Hertz, author of The Lookback Window Feverish and atmospheric, Sinaki’s writing captures with great precision the visceral torment of love and all the havoc it wrecks. Anjir is a brooding, rueful narrator-cum-protagonist whose haunting, and at times knowingly camp, plight bursts forth from the page with cinematic bite. — Andres N. Ordorica, author of How We Named the Stars Video artist Sinaki’s stunning debut follows two gay lovers struggling to survive in modern-day Tehran. In alternately gritty and sensual prose, Sinaki perfectly captures Anjir’s morbid state of mind and his inability to separate love from pain. The narrative teems with references to Greek mythology, Persian folktales, and Old Hollywood as Sinaki considers the psychological toll that living under an ever-present threat of death can take. This is a must. * Publishers Weekly Starred Review * Medusa of the Roses is a violently beautiful story of poignant queer love and loss in Iran which never stops being charming and surprising. This thrilling novel manages to be both nightmarish and dreamlike in its devoted search for romantic love and gender fluidity. Sinaki also does a brilliant job of interweaving Greek and Persian mythologies throughout the modern myth he’s created – the myth of Zal and Anjir. — Golnoosh Nour, author of The Ministry of Guidance