A stunning debut and a fascinating love story ...Romeo and Juliet in tehran. this beautiful first novel conjures up a world that is now gone - an exotic, seductive place just before the revolution in Iran. Mahastee and Reza loved each other as children, when Reza's family worked for Mahastee's in a more noble time now long past. they have not seen each other since they were sixteen, and now chance has reunited them. Mahastee is now married to a man who is well-established and well-connected politically, a man she has grown ...
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A stunning debut and a fascinating love story ...Romeo and Juliet in tehran. this beautiful first novel conjures up a world that is now gone - an exotic, seductive place just before the revolution in Iran. Mahastee and Reza loved each other as children, when Reza's family worked for Mahastee's in a more noble time now long past. they have not seen each other since they were sixteen, and now chance has reunited them. Mahastee is now married to a man who is well-established and well-connected politically, a man she has grown to despise. Reza has grown up to become a revolutionary, leading underground meetings and living at the edge of fear. their encounters are a portrait not only of an ill-fated love, but a country at odds with itself moving ever-closer to a doomed collision.
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This book rec'd stellar reviews on another site. I wish I could agree. I was looking forward to an exploration of pre-revolution Iranian culture and emotion but both the writing and the story (in my opinion) were incredibly choppy so I've just had to put it down. The story is also told from the two main characters' perspectives and I had a hard time trying to figure out which character was speaking. A nice touch would have been to title each chapter with the character's name who was speaking--it would have made it much easier when picking up the book after not reading for a while. Eventually, I found myself skimming a third to a half of it. After 150 pages, I lost interest and abandoned it.
One last thing, from other reviewers who have finished it: it is advertised as a romance but apparently it is not so if you're looking for something in that genre this may not be for you.
