Persian Brides - Softcover

Rabinyan, Dorit

3.35

286 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841955108 ISBN 13: 9781841955100

Publisher: Canongate Books Ltd, 2004

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

While eleven-year-old Nazie has long been engaged to her cousin Moussa and anxiously awaits her marriage, fifteen-year-old Flora has been abandoned by her husband in the midst of a difficult pregnancy. In a novel brimming with vitality and sensuality - smells, colours and textures float effortlessly off the page - Rabinyan examines the lives of these young Jewish girls in a Persian village at the beginning of the twentieth century. Persian Brides is a widely-acclaimed, vibrant and award-winning debut of immense emotional power.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of 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.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.