A unique read. I admired the economy of words and the repetition of specific phrases and descriptions throughout. These, along with the subject matter and ‘plot’, slowly create a dense nightmare, like a jet-black pearl.

Presented as confessional/autofiction, the two halves of the book can be viewed as distortions/reflections of one another. Through opium, the narrator steps through time, and it becomes unclear what is ‘real’: the first half, the second, or both. Every character is a mask of the narrator, and the work is an exercise in desire, despair, contempt, and destruction. Do not expect any balm at the end, only a dose of poisoned wine.

Think Inception, via opium, channeled by Edgar Allen Poe’s Iranian cousin. Or, Mulholland Drive, reimagined by a disillusioned Iranian poet. Recommended for fans of the macabre and the poetic, alike.