Sound Museum (NVLA Series)

Sound Museum combines the absurd horror of Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony with the totalitarian political critique of George Orwell’s 1984. Although these comparisons can be made for our understanding, author Poupeh Missaghi has undeniably curated something wholly original with this novella.

In a non-stop narrative, an unnamed museum tour guide welcomes the reader along with a voiceless cast of international journalists about to take a tour through the state-of-the-art Sound Museum. The presenter describes what they are about to see—or hear rather—as they walk through the museum.

In the academic tone of a researcher, the narrator describes the torture techniques used by authoritarian governments the world over. Combining her research with her own lived experience as an Iranian woman, the narrator shares her passionate interest in the ways we can use listening and sound to torture and control people we disagree with—people who are a threat to our way of life.

Somewhere between stream-of-consciousness and dissertation, Sound Museum is sure to unsettle and disturb the unsuspecting reader in for a uniquely eerie experience.