From a distinctive and powerful new voice, here is a novel of rare beauty and extraordinary accomplishment. 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. Written with passion and elegance, Persian Brides brings a rich array of characters to life - telling of their hardships without ever losing the magic and wonder that is so much a part of the lives.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
It may be true, as Tolstoy wrote, that all happy families resemble one another, but it would be next to impossible to find a family anything like the Ratoryans, the 19th-century Jewish clan engagingly depicted in this first novel?or a writer who could conjure them up more vividly than Israeli journalist Rabinyan. The members of this passionate, superstitious family inhabit a traditional Persian village where, for women, marriage and childbirth are paramount and the news that a girl has begun menstruating is disseminated by carrier pigeon. Flora?voluptuous, adorable, foolish and very pregnant at 15?casts spells every day and sings magic songs every night until her voice grows hoarse, hoping to bring her errant husband, a wayward cloth merchant, back to her. Downstairs, her 11-year-old cousin Nazie dreams of marrying Flora's brother. Episodic but not merely pastoral, the novel tells one poignant, bewitching story after another, seducing us with vivid language and outrageous tales of deception, devotion and magic. Rabinyan crams every page with evocative details: Flora spending the three days before her wedding delousing her fiance's scalp; a woman smearing her husband's glasses with a thin layer of goat's butter to keep him from discovering her ugliness; a cloth merchant who can't fall asleep without rubbing fabric between his fingers. Rabinyan's brisk, fetching prose expertly summons a long-vanished land and renders it dazzling and delicious.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Two Jewish girls are the center of this first novel, which describes in almost magical fashion the inhabitants of a small Persian village at the beginning of the century. Fifteen-year-old Flora Ratoryan is pregnant, and her cloth-merchant husband has abandoned her. Her 11-year-old cousin, Nasie, consoles her while wishing for her own marriage to Flora's brother, Moussa, to whom she has been betrothed since birth. The story only covers a few days in the lives of these girls, but the background of the inhabitants of this almond tree alley in the fictional village of Omerijan rounds out the picture. Vivid descriptions of cruelty (Miriam Hanoun, Flora's mother, kills cats; Moussa beats Flora unmercifully because he can't stand her laughter) and sensuality mix with the descriptions of everyday life. This may be too heady a mixture for some readers, but the storytelling is superb.?Molly Abramowitz, Silver Spring, Md.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stunning debut novel by Israel's hottest literary star!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Persian Brides (Hardcover)
At 18, Dorit Rabinyan published a her debut collection of poetry. Not long after her first play was produced. Not long after that her first film turned heads in Israel. Now, her first novel--Persian Brides--after commercial success abroad, is being published for the first time in the U.S. If the trade reviews are any indication, we're witnessing the birth of a new literary star. Set in a fictional Persian village at the turn of the century, two young women fight abandonment and longing, which somehow come to mean the same thing. Flora, 15 years old and pregnant, longs for the return of her husband. Nazie, 11 years old, yearns to be married. In telling their magical tale, Rabinyan traces the history of a country and its quirky legends. Its a masterful blend of fantasy and reality. This vivid tale has a flavor to be savored. Rabinyan will come to the U.S. for the first time this March to celebrate the American publication of Persian Brides, as well as to celebrate Israel's 50th Anniversary.
16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lavishing praise on beautiful prose,
By A Customer
This review is from: Persian Brides (Hardcover)
Dorit Rabinyan has given the world a masterpiece in two respects, a great story and incomperable writing. To begin with, this story is both humorous and quirky. Ms. Rabinyan is a gifted storyteller. The characters are three dimensional in every respect and the reader can identify and visualize every one of them as real, even though magic and superstition play heavily into this book. And of course the story is funny. I laughed out loud at several points at this book. My friend to whom I lent this book also laughed at the descriptions. Only one other Israeli author, the brilliant Orly Castel-Bloom, can really capture humor in the same way, though Ms. Castel-Bloom masterfully utilizes the modern and absurd to form social commentary, whereas Ms. Rabinyan tells a story straightforwardly. No matter how remarkable her ability to tell a story is, Ms. Rabinyan's most amazing achievement is her actual writing. Very rarely is the world gifted with a writer who knows exactly which words fit at the exact right time in the most perfect order. James Joyce, Vladimir Nabokov and William Shakespeare are three classic examples. Their words not only perfect but transcendent. I sincerely hope that Dorit Rabinyan can attain the same kind of immortality, for she deserves it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Taken Back,
By A Customer
This review is from: Persian Brides: A Novel (Paperback)
This well written fictional story of life in Persia in the early 1900's paints a picture of the squalid life of the inhabitats of a village both gentile and jewish. There are moments of joy and of sorrow for the family that this story revolves around and all are written with great detail that transport you to that time. I enjoyed the book and subject matter, but not nearly as much as other period tales (Red Tent for example). The end of the book leaves you wanting a richer experience. It trails off quickly and the reader doesn't get a sense of closure.
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