Two people who want to love

People before symbols

Perilhou’s profile reads the novel through two young men’s desire to love one another. Rabihavi’s reported answers explain why a subject avoided by other writers mattered to him. The discussion is concerned with the characters’ humanity as well as with the forces surrounding them. Source 1

Writing beyond one’s identity

Rabihavi recalls questions from friends about how readers might interpret his own identity. He separates writing about a relationship from declaring that it is his personal story. The conversation belongs beside his other discussions of giving characters an existence beyond the author. Source 1

A magazine’s reading

The article places the French edition in its literary and cultural setting and includes Perilhou’s assessment of its significance. Those judgements remain the critic’s contribution. A repeated URL in the archive is another copy of this same December 2020 conversation, rather than a second interview. Source 1

Security and inherited authority

London brings greater security in his account, although he does not describe himself as entirely beyond fear. The profile keeps that feeling beside the retrospective prison account. A change of country alters the risks without necessarily ending their psychological presence. Source 1

Discussing patriarchy, he remembers boys and girls eating separately in his childhood household and says he did not share a meal with his sister. This particular family memory helps explain why he sees inherited hierarchies as reaching into ordinary domestic life. It is not offered as a description of every Iranian family. Source 1

Sources & credits

1. Têtu · Boys of Love conversation

   Guillaume Perilhou’s French profile and reported author remarks, 30 December 2020. A second retained URL carries the same conversation.