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Married to a Stranger
A woman's struggle for self-realization in contemporary Iran, a novel with "the clarity and spare sensuousness of Persian poetry or miniature painting."-Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
When Minou Hakini marries a man of her own choosing—an intellectual and a radical—and moves to Abadan, a thriving oil town near the Iraqi border, she imagines her life will be adventurous and liberating. Before long, however, she becomes aware of her husband's suspicious liaisons and dangerous activities. Her struggle to forge her own identity as a woman in contemporary Iran is charged with passion, anger, and finally a need to escape.
Nahid Rachlin is an Iranian who lives in New York and teaches at Barnard College. She is the author of Foreigner and The Heart's Desire, both novels, and Veils, a collection of short stories.
When Minou Hakini marries a man of her own choosing—an intellectual and a radical—and moves to Abadan, a thriving oil town near the Iraqi border, she imagines her life will be adventurous and liberating. Before long, however, she becomes aware of her husband's suspicious liaisons and dangerous activities. Her struggle to forge her own identity as a woman in contemporary Iran is charged with passion, anger, and finally a need to escape.
Nahid Rachlin is an Iranian who lives in New York and teaches at Barnard College. She is the author of Foreigner and The Heart's Desire, both novels, and Veils, a collection of short stories.
220 pages, Paperback
First published September 21, 1983
3 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Nahid Rachlin
19 books478 followersBooks by Nahid Rachlin: nahidr@rcn.com
http://www.amazon.com/Nahid-
Nahid Rachlin went to Columbia University Writing Program on a Doubleday-Columbia Fellowship and then went on to Stanford University MFA program on a Stegner Fellowship. Her publications include a memoir, PERSIAN GIRLS (Penguin), four novels, JUMPING OVER FIRE (City Lights), FOREIGNER (W.W. Norton), MARRIED TO A STRANGER (E.P.Dutton-Penguin), THE HEART'S DESIRE (City Lights), and a collection of short stories, VEILS (City Lights). CROWD OF SORROWS, (Kindle Singles).
You can listen to my reading of three flash-fiction stories at https://soundcloud.com/roommagazine/t...
Her individual short stories have appeared in more than fifty magazines, including The Virginia Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Redbook, Shenandoah. One of her stories was adopted by Symphony Space, “Selected Shorts,” and was aired on NPR’s around the country and two stories were nominated for Pushcart Prize. Her work has received favorable reviews in major magazines and newspapers and translated into Portuguese, Polish, Italian, Dutch, German, Arabic, and Persian. She has been interviewed in NPR stations such as All Things Considered (Terry Gross), P&W magazine, Writers Chronicle. She has written reviews and essays for New York Times, Newsday, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. Other grants and awards she has received include the Bennet Cerf Award, PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She has taught creative writing at Barnard College, Yale University and at a wide variety of writers conferences, including Paris Writers Conference, Geneva Writers Conference, and Yale Writers Conference. She has been judge for several fiction awards and competitions, among them, Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction (2015) sponsored by AWP, Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award sponsored by Poets & Writers, Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize, University of Maryland, English Dept, Teichmann Fiction Prize, Barnard College, English Dept. For more please click on her website: website: http://www.nahidrachlin.com
http://www.amazon.com/Nahid-
Nahid Rachlin went to Columbia University Writing Program on a Doubleday-Columbia Fellowship and then went on to Stanford University MFA program on a Stegner Fellowship. Her publications include a memoir, PERSIAN GIRLS (Penguin), four novels, JUMPING OVER FIRE (City Lights), FOREIGNER (W.W. Norton), MARRIED TO A STRANGER (E.P.Dutton-Penguin), THE HEART'S DESIRE (City Lights), and a collection of short stories, VEILS (City Lights). CROWD OF SORROWS, (Kindle Singles).
You can listen to my reading of three flash-fiction stories at https://soundcloud.com/roommagazine/t...
Her individual short stories have appeared in more than fifty magazines, including The Virginia Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, Redbook, Shenandoah. One of her stories was adopted by Symphony Space, “Selected Shorts,” and was aired on NPR’s around the country and two stories were nominated for Pushcart Prize. Her work has received favorable reviews in major magazines and newspapers and translated into Portuguese, Polish, Italian, Dutch, German, Arabic, and Persian. She has been interviewed in NPR stations such as All Things Considered (Terry Gross), P&W magazine, Writers Chronicle. She has written reviews and essays for New York Times, Newsday, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. Other grants and awards she has received include the Bennet Cerf Award, PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts grant. She has taught creative writing at Barnard College, Yale University and at a wide variety of writers conferences, including Paris Writers Conference, Geneva Writers Conference, and Yale Writers Conference. She has been judge for several fiction awards and competitions, among them, Grace Paley Prize in Short Fiction (2015) sponsored by AWP, Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award sponsored by Poets & Writers, Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize, University of Maryland, English Dept, Teichmann Fiction Prize, Barnard College, English Dept. For more please click on her website: website: http://www.nahidrachlin.com
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 3, 2022
Dec 2, 1015pm ~~ Review asap.
Dec 3, 1030am ~~ Married To A Stranger was Nahid Rachlin's second novel, published originally in 1983. Here she tells a story about a young Iranian girl Minou, who falls madly in love with a teacher at her high school, and convinces herself that this man is the way to realize her dreams. Dreams that have nothing to do with the traditional life of a properly raised Iranian teenager.
Minou has refused all of the marriage proposals her parents have tried to arrange. She wants to live her own life and after discovering that the teacher seems to be interested in her also, she declares she will marry no one but him.
Ah, be careful what you wish for. Because the teacher is just as much a stranger to her as any of the men her parents had offered. What secrets will she learn after the wedding? How will her life change?
And how will the country change during this same time period? Set in the days of the Shah, but with the Iranian Revolution beginning to bubble up everywhere, this book gives an inside view of the closed type of life that was expected of the citizens at that time.
I have become very interested in Iran lately and Rachlin's books have helped me see what a complicated place this fascinating country is, and how nothing much has really changed there over the years, especially for women.
But there is always hope.
Dec 3, 1030am ~~ Married To A Stranger was Nahid Rachlin's second novel, published originally in 1983. Here she tells a story about a young Iranian girl Minou, who falls madly in love with a teacher at her high school, and convinces herself that this man is the way to realize her dreams. Dreams that have nothing to do with the traditional life of a properly raised Iranian teenager.
Minou has refused all of the marriage proposals her parents have tried to arrange. She wants to live her own life and after discovering that the teacher seems to be interested in her also, she declares she will marry no one but him.
Ah, be careful what you wish for. Because the teacher is just as much a stranger to her as any of the men her parents had offered. What secrets will she learn after the wedding? How will her life change?
And how will the country change during this same time period? Set in the days of the Shah, but with the Iranian Revolution beginning to bubble up everywhere, this book gives an inside view of the closed type of life that was expected of the citizens at that time.
I have become very interested in Iran lately and Rachlin's books have helped me see what a complicated place this fascinating country is, and how nothing much has really changed there over the years, especially for women.
But there is always hope.
Want to read
March 5, 2017I dont know whether the author recently come to Iran or not, but these days such style marriage are repudiate, no one force girls to marry to strangers. Such brainwashing book. Im persian girl living in Iran, im not saying my country dont have problem and women are not under the pressure but its not as black as the author try to show
September 23, 2009
This book was great. I learned about the hardships these women face when they are forced into marriage at such a young age and how oppressed they really are this book gives alot a detail about how in some countries religion and government are put together and the people can not voice their opinion openly because they may be targeted by the government or radical groups.
September 7, 2016
الهزيمةُ تُفقدُكَ توازنك و تطرحُكَ أرضاً.. تحرِمُكَ لذَّة الدَّهشة و شهوة الإكتشاف.. تقتل فضولك فتنكفئ على ذاتِكَ المُنكفئة أصلاً على أحزان قديمة جارحة.. الهزيمة قد تُبْقِي على ملامحك،لكنَّها تسلبها الإحساس ،فيغدو وجههكَ باهتاً فاتراً و لا مُبالياً.. الهزيمة تحصر إختياراتك في أكثر الأمور مرارة ...فلا تعود مُترفاً بما يكفي لإختيار أقلَّها سوءاً..!
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April 16, 2008A middle eastern women marries a man of her own choosing only to discover his infidelity and dangerous activities. You will enjoy reading about her struggle to free herself.
May 10, 2008
Sure wouldn't have wanted to walk in her shoes..LOL
March 13, 2018
A young woman growing up in Iran and discovering what she most desires in life. It's a fun look into 1970s Iran, especially how it has changed over time for women (from conservative to progressive back to conservative).
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews