Iranian singer Googoosh spent 21 years unable to perform publicly after the revolution. She credits Herman Hesse's Siddhartha with helping her survive that silence, using reading to think beyond her stage identity and rebuild who she was.
This time on books that change my life. Okay, so you're. You're now just a normal citizen. You're. You have plenty of time, and so you kind of start reading and you're working on yourself.
Yes.
And you're curious about psychology and just how we think. Do I have that right?
Exactly.
And then this book comes into your life. How did Siddhartha by Herman Hess change your life?
He didn't change my life. It didn't change my life. It did my thinking, my.
And what. Just what were you feeling at that time? Like, how did you feel about life?
I was somebody else.
I was not singer. I was not famous. Because at the beginning.
Of revolution, everybody was running away from me, from Gugush. Because.
Could get him in trouble.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
That's why I tried to forget Gugush.
My real name in my passport ID is Fahge, which nobody calls me that name. Just because Gugush was not Iranian name. Gugush is a male name, an Armenian name. But my family all come calling me Gugush.
I forgot Gugush. I became Firekey.
How did you feel? Was it okay?
Sometimes when I was thinking of Gugush, I missed her.
I missed her very much. I missed to. To perform.
To sing. But reading a book.
Made me busy.
Distraction.
Yes. Made me think about something else. There is something in the world in a. In a life which is not only performing.
