The conservative government of Iran has banned Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s latest novel Memories of My Melancholy Whores after realizing publishers hid its racy content by renaming it with the clever new title of Memories of My Melancholy Sweethearts. Heck, if you ask Russell Simmons, those two words are interchangeable!

The official responsible for originally authorising the book’s publication has been sacked, Fars [news agency] said.

The novel tells the story of a nonagenarian who decides to celebrate his old age by treating himself to a night with an adolescent virgin and asks the madame of the city’s most successful brothel to help.

The book has angered conservatives in the Islamic republic, which applies tough screening procedures to music, books and movies to see if they are in line with Islamic values.

Fortunately, we live in a country where we are free to imagine the 80 year-old Garcia-Marquez’s wrinkly, ill-working libido chasing after young, sweet meat under the guise of literature.

Iran bans Garcia Marquez’s ‘Melancholy Whores’ [AFP]