Gisu · extract

Reading orientation

A white statue comes into view before Ardeshir feels what seems to be a gun against his back. Turning reveals a man holding his fingers in the shape of a weapon. The scene changes as threat gives way to a request for money, but the first bodily shock remains part of the encounter. Source 2

The passage makes perception unstable through a small sequence of gestures and spoken demands. Ardeshir has to reassess the stranger while people nearby do not intervene. This opening offers a particular route into the novel’s world without replacing the fragment with the magazine’s broader account of its themes. Source 2

Publication and language

Baang publishes the Persian selection on 25 September 2020. Its introduction and attributed remarks about writing are separated from the novel extract, which begins after Rabihavi’s name. No translator is credited and no English literary translation is supplied by this record. Source 1

A guide whose stories change

Ardeshir’s search for a theatre becomes a search conducted through another man’s performances. His guide points a finger as though it were a gun, demands cigarettes, recounts an acting life and quotes Shakespeare. Directions and storytelling occupy the same space, making it increasingly difficult for Ardeshir to decide what kind of help he has accepted. Source 3

The guide speaks of injury, hospital confinement and escape, but his account repeatedly shifts. He describes a love that turned towards violence, then gives incompatible explanations of what happened to Tuti. Ardeshir notices the contradictions. The fragment asks the reader to keep listening without turning the guide’s claims into an established history. Source 3

Money and the promised meeting

Ardeshir inspects banknotes carefully because a counterfeit note once led to a beating at Café Naderi. The money he now offers is tied to directions, timing and the meeting he hopes to reach. Successive wrong destinations turn a simple appointment into an anxious negotiation of trust. Source 3

A woman glimpsed at a hall cannot be reached. The guide’s stories about his own attachment continually intrude on Ardeshir’s hope of seeing someone else. The two men move together through the city while pursuing different objects, and their shared route never produces a shared understanding. Source 3

The green lamp

Near the end, the guide takes a green lamp for a planter he imagines placing at Tuti’s grave. He concerns himself with its drainage rather than Ardeshir’s remaining money. Ardeshir fears being implicated in the theft and continues alone towards the City Theatre, choosing a route that avoids witnesses to their companionship. The published extract ends in separation and continuing pursuit. Source 3

Sources & credits

1. Gisu · extract · publication

   Baang. 25 September 2020. Persian. By Ghazi Rabihavi.

2. Gisu · extract · reading evidence

   Ardeshir’s walk is interrupted by a man whose imitation of a gun turns fear into an uncertain negotiation. The website paragraphs are editorial orientation to this source.

3. Gisu · novel extract · extended reading evidence

   Baang, 25 September 2020. Original source 333: publication introduction 75–95; complete supplied literary fragment 99–597. The guide’s contradictory accounts of Tuti remain character speech. No medical diagnosis or final outcome for the novel is inferred. The website sections are original English editorial orientations; literary passages are not reproduced.