How the grim family saga The Iranian Diary evolved from an icy techno-thriller into a global farce—and why that’s the best thing that could have happened to the genre. In contemporary literature, there is an unspoken rule: if you begin writing a serious drama about a nuclear threat, you must end it with either catharsis or ash. The author of this cycle breaks this rule with the grace of a card sharp. If you have read the first three novellas of The Iranian Diary (Isfahan, Shiraz, Fordo), you know Yuri Melnikov as a master of psychological noir...