The title of this novel, ‘Desolation’, took me straight to Bob Dylan and his melancholy song ‘Desolation Row’. I’m not sure if this was the author’s intention; a great deal of this book is puzzling, hints and references and snippets of history. Hossein Asgari is an Iranian writer who lives in Adelaide. His first novel ‘Only Sound Remains’ was very well reviewed and nominated for the Miles Franklin Award. ‘Desolation’ is a writer’s book about writing and much else. It’s the story of Amin, which is not his real name, who approaches the un-named narrator who is drinking tea in a cafe in Adelaide. “I have a story for you,” Amin says, described as 'a musty middle-aged Iranian man', who uses the traditional story-teller’s trick of ending each part of the tale with a riddle or a puzzle, compelling the listener to ask for more. Now we are hooked. The first puzzle is the number 655. What can it mean? In fact, it is the flight number of the Iranian passenger jet, mistakenly shot down with total loss of life, by the USS Vincennes. On board was Amin’s brother, a mathematical prodigy, on his way to an academic posting in the USA. “Now that I know that,” thinks the author, “I’m going to listen to his story." And what a story it is, set mainly in Iran during the 1980s, while the Iran-Iraq war sets the background scene. At first, Amin is captivated by pretty Parvaneh from across the road, though their meetings have to be kept secret – his friend Nima was given 20 lashes for seeing a girl. The pair watch The Sound of Music and listen to Dylan, Pink Floyd, John Lennon, and talk about living in the west. The story darkens. Amin completes three months of military training in the small town of Zahedan, and becomes friendly with a group of activists who are connected with Osama bin Laden. One of them is Ayesha, who works in the kebab restaurant used by the activist group, and the couple marry, later to divorce as her activism becomes more important to her than Amin himself. The story, as Amin tells it, creates its own reality, and now it has come to Adelaide. As the author says, ‘Desolation’ explores the enduring power of storytelling in the face of tragedy.
