The Ministry of Guidance
Golnoosh Nour
What an absolute delight this book is, set mostly in Iran we get these short but sassily interesting stories of snapshots of queer life in the Islamic Republic. Set in bedrooms and café’s, beaches and busses, London, a Ukrainian airport and Germany the books cover a range of places, emotionally, erotically and geographically. Each crafted story, explores with careful delicate prose a predicament, focused through the lens of that character’s life, dreams, desires and the things in society which conspire to frustrate and deny them. It’s not black and while, but a kaleidoscope of colourful imagery and words, giving us a real feel of day to day life as an LGBTQ person in Iran.
The Tehran Nour summons up for us feels as real as Hove, Hackney or Hull, with the crushes, disappointments, erotic thrills and parental observations experienced by us all. Nour’s sharply attentive voice challenges our own ideas of Iran, disabuses our privilege and bias and allows us to connect, on a viscerally honest level, with Queer life lived there.
There are some beautifully crafted phrases and metaphors in this book, they come upon you like a peacock kept in a kitchen, a domestic space familiar and everyday is expanded by this prose. A universe in a heartbeat, despair in a cigarette butt, the scream of desire behind a biscuit tin.
You can read the Gscene interview with Golnoosh Nour from April 2020 here:
Out now £7.99
For more info or to buy the book see the publishers website here:
You must be logged in to post a comment.