Product Description
- SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2024 MILES FRANKLIN LITERARY AWARD
- 2024 SHORTLIST – THE VICTORIAN PREMIER’S LITERARY AWARDS FOR FICTION
Saeed has not returned to Iran after publishing his novel The Imaginary Narrative of a Real Murder for fear of political persecution. He is surprised when Ismael, his father who has never left Iran, announces that he is travelling to Adelaide to visit him. During his short stay, Ismael tells Saeed the story of his unrequited love for Forugh Farrokhzad—the most controversial poet of modern Iran. The story makes Saeed see his father in a new light, and leaves him with the haunting question: had his father, unwittingly, played a role in Forugh’s death?
This is a novel that matters deeply. Moving effortlessly between Adelaide and Iran, Asgari interweaves the private lives of a father and son, with the extraordinary life of daring Iranian poetess, Forugh Farrokhzad, shedding light on the underlying tensions that have shaped recent Iranian history, political upheavals, social norms, and sexual mores. Written with great clarity, quietude, and compassion, yet epic in scope, Only Sound Remains is compelling, moving, and revelatory. – Arnold Zable
‘Only Sound Remains is a formidably intelligent novel about growing into oneself informed by the life and poetry of Forugh Farrokhzad. It unfolds with an elegant tension that is a tantalising delight. Radiating warmth and wisdom, it is at once playful and erudite. Hossein Asgari is a truly remarkable new voice. He navigates different terrains, from literature, history and politics, with great skill and imagination.’ – Dominique Hecq
REVIEWS
“Despite the novel’s ascetic title, Asgari knows a measured flourish: how a blushed cheek figures the stirring of memory (19) or a cigarette between ‘love-makings’ the cosmic span of human life (146)… Asgari covers the abstract beauty of poetic language alongside illegal abortions, fatal childbirths, and patriarchal violences… Asgari’s act of storytelling spills across these formal borders, as ‘found’ manuscripts and (mis)remembered poems perplex the border between truth and invention.” JACOB SUNTER, The Saltbush Review: Issue 4
“It is – from its layered and specific cultural context – an exploration of the complexity of relationships, the complications of art and all types of idealism, and the risks of disclosure…a restrained and unfolding story about the yearning of youth, and about politics and religion and poetry…it is also about how all these things are inextricably tied up in Iranian ways of being and knowing and living.” KYLIE MIRMOHAMADI, Artshub
“This is a powerful story of a complex relationship… At one level, this is a tale where a father recounts to his son details of his own life in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary Iran… At another level, this novel is also about sound [and] about listening after years of silence… about a past and a culture that has undergone dramatic upheaval, shaping the lives of ordinary Iranians… Readers are privy to [this] via Hossein Asgari’s skilful narration.” JUDGE’S COMMENT, 2024 Miles Franklin Literary Award
“Arising amidst the death and loss depicted throughout the novel, the note of despair accompanies a detailed and thoughtful engagement with Iranian history and culture throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries… a central figure in Asgari’s engagement [being] the poet and filmmaker Forugh Farrokhzad. … Only Sound Remains is not only a compelling debut novel, but a chance for those new to her poetry and those who have grown up with it to appreciate Farrokhzad’s ongoing resonance.” MAX BLEDSTEIN, Sydney Review of Books
