Persian Brides - Softcover

Rabinyan, Dorit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0862419980 ISBN 13: 9780862419981

Publisher: Canongate Books, 2000

Synopsis

Written with a unique blend of humour and compassion, Persian Brides explores the lives of two young Jewish girls in a Persian village at the turn of the century. The framework plot spans two days in the lives of eleven-year-old Nazie and fifteen-year-old Flora. Nazie has long been engaged to her cousin Moussa and anxiously awaits their marriage. By law, they cannot marry until she begins menstruating. Flora, by contrast, is married, pregnant and seemingly abandoned.Rabinyan's powers of description are astonishing. She creates a cast of characters brimming with vitality, and a village whose odours, colours and textures float effortlessly off the page. The result is one of the freshest and most accomplished first novels of recent years - a vibrant, tragi-comic and stunningly rich novel that resonates at every turn.

About this title

Review

"The energy of the writing is remarkable . . . It is as if we have entered the wildest of Chagall's paintings." (Literary Review)

"A remarkable (and well-translated) extravaganza." (Sunday Telegraph)

"Bursting with colourful stories and superstitions, the narrative seems to embrace whole lives rather than just two days. . . Rabinyan has a fresh and charming voice." (Independent on Sunday)

"Lush, lyrical and disturbing. . . Rabinyan's marvellously digressive style and rich prose give the story the feel of a night-long wedding feast." (New York Times)

From the Back Cover

Set at the turn of the century in the fictional Persian village of Omerijan, Persian Brides tells the magical story of two young girls - Flora and Nazie Ratoryan - and their many neighbors in the almond tree alley in Omerijan where they live. Fifteen-years-old, pregnant, and recently abandoned by her cloth-merchant husband, Flora longs desperately for the return of her unborn baby's father. Nazie consoles and pities her, and though she is still only a child of eleven, she yearns - just as desperately - for her own future marriage. Although the narrative spans only two days, it branches out and back, encompassing the lives and histories of many of Omerijan's inhabitants. A blend of fantasy and reality, the narrative forcefully conveys shocking cruelties endured by many of the characters while at the same time weaving a modern-day Arabic legend where snakes offer jewels in exchange for milk and death is thwarted by appeasing the village demons.

Edition details

• Publisher: Canongate Books
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0862419980
• ISBN 13: 9780862419981
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240