Caspian Rain (Hardcover)

by Gina B. Nahai (Author)
Key Phrases: The Opera Singer, The Tango Dancer, The Lover (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In her stirring fourth novel, Nahai explores the struggles of an Iranian family in the tenuous decade before the Islamic revolution. Twelve-year-old Yaas narrates her family's story, beginning before her birth at her parents' unlikely meeting. Her mother, Bahar, lives in the Jewish slums with her less-than-respectable family—among them, a seamstress who can't sew, a cantor who can't sing, a Muslim convert and a ghost. Bahar's fortuitous encounter with Omid Arbab, the son of wealthy Iranian Jews, results in a marriage that quickly disintegrates, due to class pressures and Bahar's desire for a measure of independence. Yaas then embarks on what is, at times, an overly lyrical account of her difficult and lonely childhood. She senses that she is an unwelcome disappointment to her mother, whose behavior toward her daughter ranges from inattentive to cruel. When Omid becomes involved in a public affair with the wealthy and beautiful Niyaz and Yaas begins going deaf, the Arbab family spirals out of control. Despite a clunky subplot involving Bahar's ghost brother and a too-easy resolution, the novel is a poignant tale of a damaged family. (Sept.)
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From Bookmarks Magazine
Gina Nahai, who left Iran as an adolescent, offers a rare glimpse into one family’s inner sanctum prior to Iran’s Islamic Revolution. A tragic story told in memoir form, Caspian Rain reveals the limitations of their lives against the class struggles and conflict between tradition and modernism that defined pre-Revolution Iran. Engaging characters (particularly the 12-year-old Yaas), some beautiful writing (with a little magical realism thrown in, including the existence of Ghost Brother), and a compelling story propelled critics along. A few reviewers noted a slightly pretentious style and tone, some overly precious moments, and a limited view of the Jewish-Iranian diaspora. When it’s at its best, however, Caspian Rain is a fascinating, tragic coming-of-age story.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 290 pages
• Publisher: MacAdam Cage; First Edition edition (September 14, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596922516
• ISBN-13: 978-1596922518
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #333,605 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars unforgettable, February 14, 2008

By	naz - See all my reviews

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gorgeous, February 17, 2008

By	Adrienne Sharp (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "You are never the same ... once you have seen the green of the Caspian.", August 26, 2007

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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