Shadows Drinking Shadows

Shadows Drinking Shadows is a surreal, psychologically charged collection of interconnected tales that move between Iran's deserts, forests, and ancient cities, and the half-lit landscapes of the unconscious. Each story begins in a concrete, sensory world-a hidden vineyard in a forgotten desert, the blazing kaluts of the Lut, the mist-soaked steps of Rudkhan Castle, the mirrored halls of an old Qazvin mansion-only to let reality melt, fold, and reassemble into something closer to a dream than to waking life.

At the heart of the book is a simple but unsettling question: what happens when the shadows we repress-memories, alternate selves, unlived lives-refuse to stay buried? A goblet of "Whisperwine" does not intoxicate the body but peels back layers of memory and identity. A night bus with no destination printed on its sign quietly offers its passengers a journey into the very desires they've spent years running from. In a fictional city, a philosopher named Shrewd pushes thinking to the brink of paradox, until even his thoughts seem to slip free and argue for their own existence.

Across deserts like Lut and Dasht-e Kavir, a photographer named Mael chases images of the mother he lost and the self he cannot quite grasp, while time itself seems to run backwards in ruined caravanserais and shops filled with clocks that refuse to tick in a straight line. In Sistan's Burnt City and the wind-scoured fortresses of Machi and Rostam, Ania searches for a place to belong, only to find that the desert may be dreaming her just as much as she dreams it.

Other tales shift to Fuman's misty forests, where soft, melting clocks and Dalí-like vistas blur photography, memory and fate, and to Ardestan, where travellers from far continents drift into a khanqah and mosque that seem to turn prayers, tiles, and children's laughter into living symbols. In Qazvin's Aminiha Hosseiniyeh, three women step through mirrors that don't just reflect, but rearrange their lives across time.

Though each narrative stands on its own, together they form a labyrinth of recurring images-mirrors, clocks, buses, birds, bells, deserts, and doorways-that echo from story to story like a half-remembered refrain. Influenced by surreal art, classical philosophy, and Persian mysticism, the collection invites the reader not to solve its enigmas, but to inhabit them: to stand before the liquid door in the vineyard, the silent stone clock in the fog, or the empty destination sign on the bus, and recognize the quiet, terrifying freedom of choice. Shadows Drinking Shadows is less a book to be "finished" than an experience that lingers, asking long after the final page: which of your own shadows are still waiting to be seen?

Max (Shahrooz) Nabati is a global citizen and an accomplished author. He has explored many countries, immersed himself in diverse societies, cultures, and natural wonders. These journeys have deeply inspired his creative work, leading him to publish short stories and novels across various genres, with several of his works released over the past decade.