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by Gina B. Nahai

In the years leading up to the Islamic Revolution in Iran there are two classes of Jews. One is the group that left the ghettos when the Shah opened them up. This group became affluent members of the community and considered themselves Iranian first and Jewish second. The second group did not have the means to leave and thus remain among the poorest of society but ardently religious. Bahar is a vivacious young teenager from the ghetto sect. The narrator describes her: “The girl on the street – her name is Bahar –would not stand out in any crowd. She’s not particularly beautiful, or smart, or endowed with exceptional wit, but she has a zest for life and irrational optimism that is alarming because it is so out of sync with reality that surrounds her.” Omid is from the affluent sect. One day, after basically being left at the altar by a fiancé selected by his overbearing parents, he sees Bahar on the street while riding in the backseat of his chauffeur – driven car. He decides to approach his parents about pursuing her for his wife not because he’s attracted to her or thinks she’d make a good wife and companion, but “because he wanted a wife, maybe a child or two – so he would fulfill whatever his role was supposed to be as a husband, and so he would, once and for all, settle the matter of his domestic life and know that he’ll never be challenged, or disturbed, or called upon to be a part of a “couple”. At his proposal, against warnings from her parents of what she was signing up for, Bahra accepts. She thinks this is her ticket out of the ghetto and a path to pursue her educational dreams.
Omid is a weakling, disrespected by his father. As a result, he is emotionally bankrupt. “He deals with the living the way Americans do the dead: elegantly and with grace, but without excessive emotionality.” However, days before his marriage he crosses paths with a beautiful, rich, Muslim woman. He’s immediately captivated and becomes obsessive. He tracks her down and begins what will become a long-term affair. The effects on Bahar are devastating as she realizes not only will she not be permitted to pursue her dreams, but her life will be devoid of any affection or care. “I’ve thought about this for a long time – how my father gave so little of himself to Bahar, who needed him so much, and gave so much to a woman who could easily have done without him. I think there was something in the way Bahar depended on him, the way she waited year after year for him to come back, that made him want to leave. I think his indifference, his cruelty, were products of Bahar’s weakness. It isn’t what she had wanted to become; it’s what he force her into. But he resents her for it all the same.”

A daughter is eventually born and Bahar transfers all of her hopes and aspirations onto Yaas. Eventually it becomes evident that something is wrong with Yaas, and it adds to the already established family tension, leading to a tragic end. “I think now it was this rage – my mother’s inability to prevail over the forces she had once believed surmountable, the shame she felt for not having fought back at first, and later not fighting enough – I think it was this rage that made her unable to accept my limitations, to accept me with those limitations. I think it was her sadness at having sold herself for a wish, her dreams that rose like shins in the night, lit up and glorious against the reality of what she would be able to attain – I think it was those dreams that, in the end, kept us apart.”

WOW! WOW! WOW!

I haven't had a book speak to me like this since The Fault in Our Stars While The Fault resembled my actual experiences this one could have easily been what my life could have been like and is probably similar to my own mother's experience. I relate so well to the young Bahar and the way Nahai shows the evolution of Bahar's character is nothing short of brilliant and heartbreaking. Omid's role in her devolution is gut-wrenching. Had he put as much effort into her as he did his lover two lives would have turned out very differently. Omid doesn’t appreciate the vivaciousness he has in Bahar – “She’s innocent and sincere – yes, willing to help anywhere she can, to forgive a snub and respond with kindness because that’s what people do when they’re from the ghetto or barely out of it; they expect to be snubbed – and this may be a quality that would be forgiven in another time and place, but among Tehran’s new elite, who have forgotten their own ghetto past too well, it only provokes condescension.” Or, geez, leave her alone. She'd been better off staying in the ghetto.

You will notice I use a lot of quotes. I just didn't feel like I could convey the sentiment better than Nahai and I think her style of writing is one of the attractions of the book. I LOVED her writing style. It's been a while since I've been so drawn to an author's style. I definitely want to look at some of her other work.

One word of caution. I added this to my TBR a long time ago. I kept putting it off because I kept seeing references to magical realism. With a few exceptions, I'm not a fan of this genre. There is a small amount of that here but it is a ghost story and the subplot is important to Yaas' situation. I mention this because I HIGHLY recommend this book but don't want to mislead people who have strong feelings about magical realism.

It is hard to imagine this won't make my top ten this year.