'In the final pages of Only Sound Remains, Iranian-Australian writer Hossein Asgari posits the ‘impossible metamorphosis of body and soul’ as ‘the only possible cure’ for ‘despair rooted in [his] body … which fed and grew on everything that preceded it: history, culture, and all the surrounding factors’. The lines are uttered by Saeed, the protagonist of Asgari’s debut novel, and they might be thought of as the book’s thesis statement. Arising amidst the death and loss depicted throughout the novel, the note of despair accompanies a detailed and thoughtful engagement with Iranian history and culture (cinema, philosophy, and – most essentially – poetry) throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Though the novel’s allusions are sufficiently rich and lively to limit the pervasive sense of anguish plaguing Saeed, the pain proves ultimately incurable; this is the tension at the novel’s core.' (Introduction)
