Long ago, in distant Iran, a poor village girl with a gift for
carpet-knotting suffered many setbacks on her journey to womanhood
and self-fulfillment.Stories-within-the-story and richly colored
glimpses of Isfahan society, both high and low, as well as much
detail on the business of designing and creating carpets, swell the
pages of Amirrezvani's novel, a devoted tale of ill fate as
portended by a passing comet. The nameless teenage heroine, a
favored only child in a tiny community, suddenly loses her father
and then her dowry, forcing her to relocate, along with her mother,
to the city, to live under the protection of a relative, Gostaham,
who works as a master in the Shah's carpet-making workshop and
permits his niece to watch and learn while he works, even though,
as a female, she will never be able to take up a job alongside men.
She catches the eye of Fereydoon, a wealthy horse-trader's son, but
being too lowly to become his formal wife, is forced instead to
accept a sigheh - a secret, three-month, renewable contract with
him. Fereydoon is an indifferent lover until she learns to please
him, but then the situation darkens when he takes for his proper
wife her closest friend. The headstrong heroine, devoid of love,
friendship and true security, decides to end the sigheh, but her
rashness results in her and her mother's expulsion onto the
streets. Hunger, illness and beggary follow, but the girl learns
wisdom and responsibility, regains Gostaham's favor, becomes
carpet-maker (with her own all-female workshop) to the Shah's harem
and looks forward to finding another husband of her own choosing.A
lavishly detailed debut, in which some of the simple values of a
folktale are woven together with richer (and more modern)
women-centered life lessons. (Kirkus Reviews)
'Sensuous and transporting... filled with the colours, 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 THE BLOOD
OF FLOWERS is a mesmerizing historical novel about a young Iranian
woman whose destiny changes on the sudden death of her father.
Forced to leave their village, the woman and her mother travel to
the beautiful city of Isfahan, where they are taken in by an uncle,
a wealthy carpet designer, and his unsympathetic wife. When an
ill-considered action results in the heroine's fall from grace, she
is forced into an extraordinary secret marriage. Spirited and
rebellious, she wants to be free to live a life her own choosing,
if she can find a way. 'The most wonderful book... Fascinating,
totally original and utterly gripping' Esther Freud 'The prose...
positively glows on the page, and the characterisation is similarly
acute, notably of the wonderfully drawn heroine. As a journey into
a society that will be alien to most readers, this is a remarkable
achievement' Barry Forshaw
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