Customer Reviews

A Good Place to Die

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I can't believe that no-one has reviewed this novel. Set at the time of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, it is both a sweeping and dramatic work of literature and a refreshingly different tender love story.

James Buchan is a descendant of John Buchan author of "The 39 Steps", and a former arts writer for the Financial Times. The book received excellent and extensive professional reviews when released in the UK and deserved every one of them.

I had the luck of being in Iran in 1995, and having the freedom to travel extensively throughout the country. Despite the friction between theocracy and Western liberalism, Iranians in general remain friendly, hospitable, and charming people, and the landscapes are among the world's most beautiful. Add to that the magnificence of the buildings, the ancient wisdom that designed wind towers so that houses in the desert could benefit from evaporative cooling, the existence of qanats bringing water through underground tunnels to create habitable oases, and the fact that Iranians are the only people who honor dead poets. Buchan's book (also titled "The Persian Bride" in other countries) evokes the sad sweetness of the place, the charm and volatility of its people, and the all-too-real costs of the 1979 Revolution. I couldn't put it down, and zipped through it in just one day.

This is fabulous piece of literature. James Buchan takes us into a country most Westerners will never experience, and gives us a slice of a culture that is as rich as it is contradictory. An amazing journey...