"Sex vengeance and betrayal in modern day Tehran-Navid Sinaki's bold and cinematic debut is a
queer literary noir following Anjir a morbid romantic and petty thief whose boyfriend
disappears just as they're planning to leave their hometown for good. Anjir and Zal are
childhood best friends turned adults in love. The only problem is they live in Iran where
being openly gay is criminalized and the government's apparent acceptance of trans people
requires them to surgically transition and pass as cis straight people. When Zal is brutally
attacked after being seen with another man in public despite the betrayal Anjir becomes even
more determined to carry out their longstanding plan: Anjir who's always identified with the
mythical gender-changing Tiresias will become a woman and they'll move to a new town for a
fresh start as husband and wife. Then Zal vanishes. Stalking and stealing his way through the
streets clubs library stacks hotel rooms and museum halls of Tehran Anjir's morals and
gender identity are pushed to new places in the pursuit of Zal peace and self-determination.
Steeped in ancient Persian and Greek myths and brimming with poetic vulnerability subversive
bite and noirish grit Medusa of the Roses is a page-turning wallop of a story from a bright
new literary talent"--
