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.

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 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. Rabinyan's vivid depiction of the village is a sensual feast, recreating the odors and flavors, the colors, sounds, and textures of everyday life. A masterful blend of fantasy and reality, the narrative forcefully conveys the 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 their lives

Rights Sold to:

France, Denoel; Germany, Goldman; Greece, Livani; Holland, Vassallucci; Holland (Paperback) De Geus;  Israel, Am Oved; Italian, Neri Pozza; Korea, Dulnyouk Publishing; Poland: Smak Slowa; Portugal, Difel SA; Spain, Martinez Roca SA; Spain (Castillian) Lumen; Turkey, Dogan Kitapcilik; UK, Canongate; USA, Braziller

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Reviews:

“This life, these people, so strange to us, call out from these pages with a reality more intense than ours. Richly written, perfectly controlled, and I would say desperately sad if it weren’t for these streaks of joy.” – Fay Weldon (UK)

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“…Lush, lyrical and disturbing...(the) marvelously digressive style and rich prose give the story the feel of a night-long wedding feast.” – The New York Times Book Review

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“The characters, comic, sodden, and sly, spill out of this small book like clowns in a ragtag circus.” – The New Yorker

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“The energy of the writing is remarkable: Rabinyan maintains the feverish atmosphere of the novel until the very end...In Persian Brides the dream and waking worlds have merged. It is as if we have entered the wildest of Chagall’s paintings.” – Literary Review

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“This intensely visual novel is set in Arabian Night territory and told by a Scheherazade as enthralling but less ladylike than the original ... remarkable extravaganza.” – The Sunday Telegraph

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“Dorit Rabinyan creates a world at once cruel and sensual, charged with odors, spices and colors that evoke the difficult condition of Persian women in a patriarchal society. She blends legends and reality, dreams and fantasy, past and present and weaves it into an epic that reads like A Thousand and One Nights.” – Courrier Geneve

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“A book that smells of watermelon, meatballs, spittle and blood. The novel evokes Gabriel Garcia Marquez as it blends the lives of people, places, strange rituals, dreams, legends, the past and the present, fantasy and reality.” – L’Hebdo