A Mississippi State University graduate turned novelist will be on campus tomorrow signing copies of his first book, “A Fly on the Wall.” The book is by Nanolla Yazdani and is about a fly that navigates between four apartments and studies human behavior. In the same way the fly navigates between the four apartments, Yazdani said he navigates the reader through some of life’s most difficult questions.
There are four characters in the book; one of them is a body builder the fly loves because he is always sweaty and never takes a shower.
The main character is an atheist woman who has dialogue with a priest about Darwinian Evolution and the Bible. She conveys the book’s deeper meaning through the discussion of such deep topics.
“She is very greedy and killed her ex-husband; she loves money and does not care about what she does,” Yazdani said.
Another character in the book is a retired military officer who experiences a hard time while he tries to adapt to civilian life.
The observations the fly makes serve to tell the reader about how similar humans really are. The fly is capable of understanding human beings, and Yazdani said the reader is fulfilled by going on a quest for human understanding just like fly.
Throughout the book there is the underlying theme that there is a higher power. There is also the theme of how people act differently when they are alone than when they are with others. Yazdani said a goal of the book is for people to be who they are regardless of where they are; he said the only way that people can truly define themselves is if they have deep-rooted values, such as love, justice, understanding and truth.
“There is a God, there is accountability and we need to put our differences aside and listen to one another more,” he said.
Other than religious aspects intertwined throughout the book, Yazdani also applies elements of philosophy and his expertise in psychology to create a humorous and insightful account of the human condition.
“I want people to pick up the book and relax and see themselves better after reading it,” he said.
Yazdani said his expertise is creativity.
“The easiest thing in the world is creativity; you just have to let go,” he said. “When you slow down the time and look at the same thing from a different angle creativity emerges.”
Yazdani has been writing for two years and has had success so far. He signed a five year-five book contract with a publisher in Pennsylvania and has had television opportunities from Los Angeles.
He did not write growing up but thought that he had a lot to share when a friend told him that he should try putting his thoughts down on paper, which is exactly how Yazdani writes-no design but an “I’ll decide what happens in the next chapter when I start writing it” approach.
He said he thought he had it in him to write a good story after all he has seen. He was the director of mental health at the Mississippi penitentiary and is currently the director of a youth correctional facility.
He said when people change their lives in these places they truly do it, as opposed to some people on the outside who may change for the wrong reasons or think they have changed a lot but really have not.
Yazdani is working on two other books that touch on similar issues in a humorous way. One of the books is called “A Part-Time Profit” and the other is called “The Garden of Eden.Com.”
Yazdani is originally from Iran, but is an American citizen after living 30 years in the United States.
He will be at The Union bookstore from 11a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday for the book signing.