56 Darajah Persiska (Farsi) 2025

One Hundred and Thirty Years After the 1979 Revolution, Iran is scorched under the 56-degree heat of the desert, ravaged by global warming, desertification, and water tensions. The narrator and Homa, a curious couple from Berkeley, step into this devastated land in search of lost cultural roots. From the dreamlike Esfahan to Ashtian, a utopia full of flaws, they are confronted with fundamental questions: What is identity? What does mourning mean? What is the value of life? Could the mythical stream of the Zagros mountains offer a glimmer of hope for life’s rebirth?
The novel “56 Degrees” by Hossein Noosh-Azar, published by Asemana, is a dystopian work set in a near future in which Iran has been transformed into a devastated land with temperatures reaching 56 degrees Celsius due to global warming, desertification, and a severe water crisis.

In this futuristic world, the narrator and Homa, a curious couple from Berkeley, travel to Iran in search of their lost cultural roots. They enter a country where places such as the imagined Spadana and Ashtian, a utopia filled with contradictions, simultaneously evoke the grandeur of the past and the collapse of the present. This journey is not merely a geographical exploration, but also a quest for answers to questions about identity, grief, the meaning of life, and the possibility of renewal in a fragmented world.

In this novel, Hossein Noosh-Azar combines elements of science fiction, mythology, and realism to create a warning image of a future in which environmental destruction and the collapse of civilization are direct consequences of humanity’s relationship with nature. Through poetic descriptions of the desert blended with the harsh realities of a dystopian world, the author creates an atmosphere suspended between beauty and devastation.

One of the central themes of the novel is the reconsideration of the concept of utopia. 56 Degrees suggests that even systems created with the promise of saving humanity may ultimately lead to restrictions on individual identity and freedom. The characters’ journey through future Iran becomes a metaphor for the search for memory and identity, a past that may no longer be possible to recover.

Noosh-Azar has stated that he began writing part of the first chapter in 2016 and completed the main body of the novel nine years later within five days. For this reason, he describes the book as a story “written not in nine years and five days, but in five days and nine years.”

“56 Degrees” is a novel about the future of the Earth, environmental crisis, cultural memory, and human responsibility toward its own destiny. Through an imaginary journey into a future Iran, the novel raises fundamental questions about identity, hope, and the possibility of continuing life in an unstable world. The cover design of the book was created by Saleh Tasbihi, a renowned Iranian artist.