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.
Genre: Literary Fiction
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.
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
"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
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