The Guard
by Peyman Esmaili
A thrilling novel; a modern narrative of a Persian myth Siamak has lost his parents in a car accident many years ago. This incident and the harm it has inflicted on him change his whole future. Years later, he is an engineer working in southern Iran and is in love with Roshanak. She’s fallen for him too. However, his past always casts a shadow over him making him unable to cope with his destiny. He’s always on the run; from the accident and its perpetual wound, and the weird occurrence he faces in the south leading to a mysterious crime. Siamak moves to Kordestan to get away from it all forever, but instead, he gets stuck in a frozen desert full of abandoned houses and horrifying sounds. As he is passing through the desert, he realizes that he is not alone and is surrounded by shadows closing in on him: Sard-Khabs who are neither human nor animal, but something in between and even more terrifying; ghosts following him from the south to the frozen desert in Kordestan to take revenge. They govern this hell-like nature. There’s also a bizarre father and son with an even more bizarre history. In this most remote part of the world, Siamak remembers his past. He recalls the happenings and people from his past, which complete the puzzle of his adventurous life. It is concerning other inhabitants of this haunted world that he is to make a risky decision; a decision that carries the trace of his last memory of his father and that incident.