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Caspian Rain

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This story takes place in Iran, in the years before the Islamic revolution. Told by a young girl named Yaas (meaning "poet's jasmine" in Farsi) we learn of the peculiar circumstances under which her parents first laid eyes on each other, and the troubled relationship that denied both mother and daughter a normal life.

The majority of the story is about Bahar (meaning "spring") the girl's mother, who comes from the Jewish slums. Her family is best described as dysfunctional, but probably no more so than many others in the neighborhood. Bahar's mother is a seamstress whose wealthy customers will admit that she can't sew, but is honest and charges low fees for her work. Her father is a cantor whose voice has only carried him as far as weddings and funerals, and her siblings include a slacker dude with aspirations to be an opera singer; a brother who converted to Islam to acquire wealth; a ghost brother who died when he was ten but hasn't yet accepted this fact; an unmarried older sister, and another who is unhappily married with two children.

From this background, a chance meeting with Omid (meaning "hope") eventually takes the girl out of the ghetto, but the stigma remains for life, and unfortunately she gets no support from her husband who almost immediately acquires other interests when he learns that she has a mind of own. A series of unfortunate events unfold, one disappointment being the arrival of a daughter when the experts had foretold the birth of a son. Yaas finds her young life consumed by her mother's longing for acceptance as Bahar tries to relive her life through her daughter.

The narrative is richly descriptive, with several intriguing sub-plots involving a tango dancer, a German couple with a terrible past, illicit and tragic relationships and more, but the story comes to a much too sudden stop after the long journey of hope.



Amanda Richards, August 27, 2007

"What do you do with a loss you can neither cure, nor accept, nor overcome?" asks the narrator toward the end of CASPIAN RAIN, the new novel from Gina B. Nahai. This question comes at the end of the book, even though it weaves through the entire story. The characters are colored by loss; in fact, loss seems to be what defines them. Because there is a sweetness to Nahai's prose, an otherwise gloomy and hopeless tale is lovely and graceful.

One afternoon in Tehran, a schoolgirl who isn't beautiful but is full of energy catches the eye of an unhappy young man. His engagement has been called off (he was deemed too cold and unemotional by the bride-to-be), and he is looking for a suitable wife. Bahar is from the city's poor Jewish ghetto, and her family is stunningly unsuccessful (a seamstress who cannot sew, a cantor who cannot sing), debased (a sister horribly abused by her husband), shamed (a brother converted to Islam) and haunted (a brother who died in childhood). Omid's family is wealthy and assimilated into Tehran's upper crust, where the distinction between Jews and Muslims fades just a bit. Each family warns against the marriage, but Bahar and Omid, to the consternation and anger of all, wed nevertheless.

From the beginning the marriage is miserable; Omid wants a subservient wife, and Bahar dreams of finishing school to become a teacher. Neither one finds happiness with the other, and the resentment on the part of their families only makes them feel more isolated. Eventually they each find refuge; Omid in an affair with the beautiful and worldly Niyaz, and Bahar in her daughter, Yaas. Omid's very public affair with Niyaz humiliates Bahar, who is also disappointed by Yaas; she had hoped he would be more of a source of pride. Bahar and Omid ignore for years the signs that something is wrong with Yaas, until it becomes too obvious to overlook any longer.

For Bahar, Yaas's increasing deafness brings further shame on her and stirs up emotions her family would rather not deal with. Although Omid is kinder to Yaas than the often cruel Bahar, he is distant and, in truth, loves Niyaz more than his daughter.

In CASPIAN RAIN, the story of this tense family is set against the backdrop of Tehran leading up to the Revolution --- a place of mixed heritage and religion, full of eccentric characters (all, too, faced with the burden of loss), and both ambition and despair. Nahai's vision is mostly a bleak one: women subjugated to husbands or disappointed by lovers, parents ashamed of children, dreams deflated and talents generally wasted. This is all in the context of the Jewish community of Iran, struggling to maintain identity yet often exchanging it to gain power or a sense of security.

Nahai's writing is poetic and original, sometimes stark and sometimes transcendent. Poetic and original also describes this tale, which takes readers into the Jewish community of Tehran through the life of Yaas, who is very much an outsider to Tehran and both of the Jewish families she was born into. It is in the ghosts and oddballs that she finds self-recognition.

In asking what to do with devastating loss, Yaas and her creator Nahai decide to look for the slightest sliver of hope and fashion a good story.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman

Reading Caspian Rain, by Gina Nahai, is like opening a golden treasure chest. Inside it, you will find all kinds of intriguing and fascinating objects. There are several interconnected stories being told . First there is the heartbreaking story of an innocent little girl, Yaas, who desperately longs for the love of her parents. In reading the book, the reader can feel her anguish, as she tries every which way to be noticed and loved. There is the story of the intelligent and ambitious Bahar, Yaas's mother, a story in which the reader can actually taste the bitterness that Bahar is left with, when she realizes that she cannot conquer any of the barriers that will forever keep her from realizing any of her dreams. There is the story of Omid, an emotionally stunted man who, while being the son of privilege, has come from a community which, as a result of being faced with deep prejudices, has had to downplay its' ethnicity and become self loathing . Finally, there are the very rich descriptions of the sounds, sights and smells of Tehran, a fourth character in the novel; a bustling city where the contradictions between the old and the new are funny, tragic and endless. The book was truly unforgettable.

With lush prose and surgical precision, Nahai examines pre-revolutionary Iran, a country hobbled by a social system so oppressive it crushes every one within it. Muslims and Jews live side by side, and each of their worlds is as socially stratified as the other. The novel is narrated by the young daughter of a wealthy Jew and her penniless mother, and she details their increasing desperation as her father falls in love with a Muslim woman. His abandonment of them leaves them emotionally bereft and socially isolated in a world that has no place for them. Brilliant and affecting. You will think about this novel for days after reading it.

This ultimately tragic story is told with such compassion that it is impossible to put aside, a family- father, mother, daughter- connected by the nature of their bond, yet so painfully estranged that each is trapped in an emotional vacuum. Married to Omid Arbab, Bahar has no idea why he chose her for his wife, her status so far below that of his family that there is little communication post-nuptials. Omid has, in fact, chosen this young woman from a low class Jewish family because he assumes she will be malleable. Raised in a distant environment, his wealthy family concerned only with their acceptance in Muslim society, Omid is detached from life, never accessible to a young bride who sees her hopes crushed by reality. Denied education and career, Bahar, resists sinking into despair: "She can't believe this is going to be her fate." Unable to bow to her husband's expectations, she is "caught between the pride of battle and the shame of defeat".

His dormant passion awakened outside the marriage, Omid drifts farther away, Bahar's only option to bear him a son. Unfortunately, she delivers a red-haired daughter, Yaas, replicating her own sad life, disappointed mother shamed by a worthless daughter. Born to a home filled with anger and frustration, Yaas hovers near her mother, hoping to please, but ever invisible. Reflecting on her mother's life of constantly dashed hopes, Yaas both empathizes with her mother's burden and questions why she, a child, cannot keep her parents together. Bahar's pain is exacerbated as the years pass, irrevocable; helpless in his passion, Omid makes a difficult decision, Yaas desperate to accomplish the impossible, to bring her parents together.

Set against the background of pre-revolutionary Iran, Tehran is rigidly class-conscious: the lower class Jews of southern Tehran; self-congratulatory wealthy Jews who mix with Muslim society even though they are considered intruders; a woman who grasps at marriage to gain freedom, only to have her dreams proved false and foolish; an indifferent man who falls prey to unexpected passion; and the sensitive child caught in the middle. Eccentric characters people the novel, the Tango Dancer, the rebellious maid who sneaks off to meet her lover in the afternoon, the Pigeon Sister; and the enigmatic Ghost Brother. In this loveless landscape, the innocent child struggles to understand her role, why she is a burden and not a joy. The result is poignant and tragic, a lost soul floating among the unwanted, craving only a small portion of love but heaped with shame. In the end, the terrible symmetry of this tale is undeniable. Luan Gaines/2007

I decided to start writing reviews since I always read through them before buying a book. I thought this book was good. Maybe I'm a little tough as a critic, but I didn't think it was great. There were moments when I had to muscle my way through because I wasn't captivated by the story. I liked reading about a culture that is so different from my own life experiences. I don't regret the time I spent reading it, but I also can't rave.

I thought the book was well written and gave a good perspective of life in Tehran and the lives of women.

wow. a great insight of the different social divides between the haves (affluent jews) and have nots (jews living in the ghetto) .. all living in iran. Centered around a jewish girl living in the ghetto who through her gusto personality ended up living in the affluent jews arena, or so she thought; and you get to experience her journey through innocent eyes of a girl and as she matures into motherhood. You also get to see another side through her daughter. hauntingly powerful and the story is written so well that it was a page turner for me. Socially climbing and acceptance is still rife in this day and age; so it was an interesting and poignant recognition of our society.

Gina Nahai is one the most creative and literate authors working today and should find a regular place on the bestseller lists for her impressive storytelling talent. Her exquisite writing and character development never fails to keep me coming back for more.

Once I started reading "Caspian Rain" I couldn't put it down. Without giving away too much of the story, all I can say is that Ms. Nahai captures your interest with her complex and fascinating characters examined and described in her exquisite prose. You feel the heart and soul of the characters and every moment and situations resonates that much more deeply. I love to read anything Ms. Nahai writes and look forward to her next novel. I highly recommend "Caspian Rain" to anyone who loves to be drawn into a story that takes you to a place about universal themes dealing with real human emotions of loss and acceptance.

"Caspian Rain" by Gina Nahai is a true literary masterpiece and one of the most beautifully written, insightful, touching, and stirring novels of our time. Set in pre-revolutionary Iran, Nahai tells the story of a young girl named Yaas, who faces the tragedy of slowly going deaf at the age of ten and watches in silence and fear while her parents marriage falls apart at the seams. Nahai captures the character of Yaas, who narrates the story, and manages beautifully to express Yaas' sadness, desperation, and incredible wisdom. Nahai's writing style is not only magical and poetic, but she manages to be straightforward in her plot scheme and make the readers feel as if they are sitting in Yaas' bedroom as she whispers her tales into their ears. Nahai's "Caspian Rain" is one of the rare novels one will find that has the power to change lives, touch hearts, and make a difference. This novel hardly falls short of perfection and should be read by all.