The Book of Advice

The Book of Advice, an experiment in self-translation, stems from the andarznameh tradition of classical Persian literature, a form that moves between verse and prose as it engages invented or familiar sayings and folktales. Originally written in Persian between 2018-2020, the book now speaks in both English and Persian, opening at once from the back and the front, in a voice both distanced and familiar. The vicissitudes of the everyday preoccupy its intimately impersonal speaker as she wrestles with the inadequacy and mobility of language.

'With meticulous and pensive care, Ghazal Mosadeq takes the ethical temperature of the world around her, creating in the process, an almost tangible atmosphere—we can feel the breeze through the open window, smell her days full of rain. Always attentive to the subtlest levels of human interaction, Mosadeq shows a responsibility to others that manages to be both exacting and generous. A gorgeous book unafraid to look at the difficulties inherent in being human and to honor them lovingly.' – Cole Swensen