Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian
In 2019, Moud is a gay teen struggling to reconcile his relationship with his distant Iranian father, Saeed. That’s not to mention he is trying to get his boyfriend to understand the burden of being queer in their culture. When Saeed gets news that his father is dying in Tehran, Moud accompanies him to Iran to say goodbye to his grandfather. What he doesn’t expect is to stumble into a new understanding of his own family history and culture that will change his outlook on everything, including his own view of himself.
In 1978, Saeed is an engineering student with a promising future. When his family discovers his involvement in protests relating to political unrest in Iran, they send him to live with the grandmother he never knew in America, a land he cannot stand.
In 1939, Bobby lands an MGM contract in Hollywood thanks to his toxic stage mother’s manipulations. But Bobby will soon learn the downside to being different in a time when that was a threat to his very existence. This intergenerational tale weaves together queer romances across history and cultures and demonstrates how, even now, queer love remains continuously at odds with itself.