“This is a novel, not a manual for revolution,” says one passage in Sama Maani’s new novel, which – there could be no hotter and more current topic for literary fiction – asks about the conditions and possibilities of regime change in Tehran. How does it work? The revolution? With violence and weapons? Or with ideas and brains? Let’s imagine: It was enough to stage a concert of Beethoven’s Ninth in Tehran and the murderous dictatorship would collapse.
