VPLA 2024
Only Sound Remains

Title: Only Sound Remains

Author: Hossein Asgari

Publisher: Puncher & Wattmann

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?

Photography by Sarah Walker

Judges’ report

Curated and crafted with much care and tenderness, Only Sound Remains is a multi-layered novel capturing a delicate and at times fragile relationship between a father and son. A haunted past intertwines with the true story of a remarkable Iranian poetess who shook and shaped modern Iranian literature. The father, Ismael, comes to Australia to visit, compelled to narrate to his son the story of obsession and yearning toward his unrequited first love, the poet Forugh Farrokhzad. This novel speaks profoundly to suppressed passions that shape family, faith, political and artistic convictions. Only Sound Remains breaks the literary borders and invites Australian readers to learn about the world of literature, poetry and politics oceans away.

Extract

About the author

Photo by Benjamin Nicholls

Born in Iran, Hossein Asgari lived and worked in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a physicist before moving to Adelaide where he undertook a Ph.D. in Creative Writing. His short stories have appeared in The Saltbush Review and Overland. Only Sound Remains is his first novel.