Persian Brides

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.

Reviews of Persian Brides

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