Publishers Weekly
★ 07/08/2024
Video artist Sinaki’s stunning debut follows two gay lovers struggling to survive in modern-day Tehran. Anjir and Zal’s passionate but tumultuous relationship is threatened by the government’s criminalization of homosexuality and by Zal’s marriage to a wealthy woman, Mahtob. After Zal is savagely beaten by passersby who see him with a younger man, Anjir, despite being heartbroken by Zal’s betrayal, remains committed to the pair’s plan to leave Tehran for Isfahan, where they will live openly as man and woman after Anjir undergoes a sex-reassignment surgery. Then Zal disappears, and Anjir grows obsessed with finding Zal’s mysterious young lover. After tracking the man down, Anjir breaks into his apartment, even as he battles the ominous sensation that someone is watching his every move. Eventually, Anjir turns to Mahtob for information, and she counters with a dangerous proposal that tests the lengths Anjir will go to secure his and Zal’s freedom. 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. Agent: Mariah Stovall, Trellis Literary. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Medusa of the Roses
“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
“Sinaki’s prose is dense with sensory detail and mythological allusions . . . [a] memorable descent into love and betrayal in queer Tehran.”—Kirkus Reviews
“It’s a gritty tale woven in with ancient Persian and Greek myths, fused into a debut novel so good you’ll skip all your summer days’ plans.”—Fleurine Tideman, Betches
“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
“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 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 wreaks. Anjir is a brooding, rueful narrator-cum-protagonist whose haunting, and at times knowingly camp, plight bursts forth from the page with cinematic bite.”—Andrés N. Ordorica, author of How We Named the Stars
