The Blood of Flowers

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Format:	Hardback 384 pages

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Synopsis

Set in seventeenth-century Iran, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS is the powerful and haunting story of a young girl's journey from innocence to adulthood. The novel begins in the 1620s in a remote village where the narrator (whose name, in the Iranian storytelling tradition, we are never to know) lives with her mother and rug-maker father. On the sudden death of her father our heroine and her mother fall upon hard times and are forced to travel to the bustling, beautiful, exotic city of Isfahan where relatives take them in. Everything is new: the grudging charity of her aunt, the encouragement of her uncle, one of the finest carpet-makers in the world, who begins to teach her his craft, the treacherous friendship of the daughter of rich neighbours. And there's an adventure ahead which will introduce her to the sensual side of life as well as to the cruelty of betrayal and rejection before she finds her way to contentment and possibly, even, to happiness, in a world full of contrasts and dangers.

Book details

Published
03/05/2007

Publisher
Headline Review

ISBN
9780755334193

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Jacket review

'Sensuous and transporting...filled with the colors, tastes and fragrances of life in 17th century Isfahan. Amirrezvani clearly knows and loves the ways of old Iran, and brings them to life with the cadences of a skilled story-spinner' -- Geraldine Brooks 20060711 'Richly coloured glimpses of Isfahan society... A lavishly detailed debut' -- Kirkus Reviews 20070315 'So smoothly does Anita Amirrezvani weave her tapestry of ideas that her rigorously researched tale of tragic beauty seems effortless. Amirrezvani, in her debut novel, gives us the literary equivalent of fine carpet-weaving. [She] takes us into life in Iran from the inside!No wonder the book is hard to put down.' -- Herald Sun, Australia 20070315 'Beautifully imagined... Simply a stunning debut. One can't help but want to return to the charming main narrator and the entrancing tale of her quest for independence and self-reliance, her daring and honest exploration of love and desire for love, and above all the profound discovery... that she 'must being to understand her own worth" -- San Francisco Chronicle 20070315 'Vibrant' -- Vogue 20070315 'I've just read the most wonderful book by Anita Amirezzvani...it is fascinating, totally original and utterly gripping. It will remain one of my favourite books.' -- Esther Freud, Independent on Sunday 20070315 'Powerful and haunting' -- Image, Australia 20070315 '[Amirrezvani] argues most effectively for art's sake... through a series of artful tableaux; women congregating in a public bath; merchants haggling in the city's great bazaar; teeming slums and serene pleasure palaces' -- Washington Post 20070315 'Amirrezvani... infuses her heroine with lilting eloquence' -- Washington Post 20070315 'Enduring and dynamic' -- Washington Post 20070315 '!a staggeringly well-written novel' -- Sun Herald, Australia 20070315