A Journey into the World of Books at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Book Club

Mahan Saraj, Secretary of the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Book Club, in an interview with an Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) reporter in Shiraz, reviewed the club’s activities over the past six months and spoke about the collective experience of students encountering literature and thought. He emphasized that what happened in the club’s sessions was not “merely reading books,” but rather “an inner journey” for its members.

Saraj, referring to the starting point of this path, added: “Our first step was taken with 1984. In this book, we learned how power can even confiscate human thought. We realized that the most dangerous dictators are not only in politics; sometimes they live in our own minds.”

He continued: “In One Day in the Life of a Condemned Man, Victor Hugo allowed us to see up close that a human being condemned to death by society is still full of life. That book reminded us that no one—not even ourselves—has the right to absolute judgment.”

Regarding the session on Man’s Search for Meaning, Saraj said: “Frankl took us to the heart of death camps, but from the depths of darkness, he showed us the meaning of living. We understood that if a person finds a meaning to stay, they can overcome the hardest situations.”

According to the Secretary of the Book Club, the special session on literary stories was also an experience beyond reading stories for the members: “We didn’t just read stories; we saw the small world of humans—the silent moments, the hidden pains and joys. There, literature became an exercise in seeing details for us.”

Explaining other books discussed in the sessions, he added: “With Chekhov’s Ward No. 6, we entered a world where reason and madness were intertwined; and gradually we understood that madness is not uncommon outside that room either. That story warned that habit and insensitivity are more dangerous than any disease.”

Saraj further referred to the popular session on The Little Prince and said: “It was a simple but profound book; it taught us to see again with the eyes of a child and to be responsible for the things we have cherished.”

According to him, in the Political Thinkers session, members stepped from the world of literature into the realm of philosophy and realized “how ideas shape history” and that a society without thought is merely a scattered collection.

Saraj then analyzed the important session on Blindness: “In this book, we saw ourselves in a city where people see but do not understand. Perhaps it was the bitterest mirror that literature placed before us.” He also explained about the Tangsir session: “Zayer Mohammad, with his anger and justice, came to the session and reminded us that literature is not just narrative; it is protest, it is a scream, and sometimes justice emerges from the novel.”

Saraj also referred to the students’ experience reading Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and Alavi’s Her Eyes, adding: “In Steinbeck, we understood how heavy simple dreams can be and sometimes kindness is a person’s only crime. In Her Eyes, literature returned to our own soil and showed that even silence can be a scream.”

Regarding the last book of this period, he said: “Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground seemed to be the destination of this entire journey. A book about a person who has withdrawn from the world but analyzes himself in the darkness of his mind. It was as if all twelve of these sessions had led us to this very point.”

Referring to the special program for Book and Reading Day, he said: “For us, this path was not just a review of books; it was a review of ourselves. We believe that a book is an unfinished dialogue between humans; between the past and the future. The Book Club was initially an invitation to think, see, and listen. And this invitation continues… because the world still needs people who read, understand, and do not let others pay the price for ignorance.”

Saraj noted: “The Hungarian Literature Review session was held in collaboration with the University of Shiraz’s Center for Thought and Cultural Studies. The guest of this program was Ali Masoumi, translator of ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ by the prominent Hungarian author and 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, László Krasznahorkai.”