Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith

Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith
Author: Gina B. Nahai
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2000-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0671042831

An epic tale blending Persian and Jewish cultures travels from Tehran's Jewish ghetto, through Turkish whorehouses, to Los Angeles as Lili, with the help of Aunt Miriam the Moon, searches for her magical mother Roxanna the Angel.

Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith

Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith
Author: Gina B. Nahai
Publisher:
Total Pages: 376
Release: 1999
Genre: Mothers and daughters
ISBN: 9780684851396

One star-studded night, five-year-old Lili witnesses her mother, Roxanna, sprout wings and vanish into the sky, undisturbed by the rules of gravity. Roxanna leaves no farewell, no word of explanation, no trace of her existence. Lili's subsequent search for her mother - spurred by the tireless efforts of her aunt Miriam the Moon - is at the heart of this mesmerising epic tale that follows Roxanna, born as a bad-luck child in the harsh Jewish ghetto of Tehran, through the opulent world of Iran's aristocracy to the whorehouses of Turkey and beyond, to present day Los Angeles. At stake are Roxanna's hopes for happiness, for escaping the bonds of Old World tradition and finding forgiveness for that most terrible of sins - desire. Weaving together strands of Persian and Jewish culture with heartbreaking, lyrical prose, Gina Nahai brings to life a courageous circle of women rooted in their homeland but trying to reshape their lives as exiles in a new world.

Sunday's Silence

Sunday's Silence
Author: Gina B. Nahai
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2003-04-02
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0743459458

"Denied by his father, abandoned by his mother, Adam has been in flight from his past for twenty years--until he returns to investigate the possible murder of his father by one of the church members."--Jacket.

Cry Of The Peacock

Cry Of The Peacock
Author: Gina B. Nahai
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2000-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0743403371

Peacock is jailed in Iran by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. While in prison she recounts her remarkable 116 year life to her fellow inmates.

Moments of Magical Realism in US Ethnic Literatures

Moments of Magical Realism in US Ethnic Literatures
Author: Lyn Di Iorio Sandín
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2012-12-06
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1137329246

A collection of essays that explores magical realism as a momentary interruption of realism in US ethnic literature, showing how these moments of magic realism serve to memorialize, address, and redress traumatic ethnic histories.

The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.

The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.
Author: Gina Nahai
Publisher: Akashic Books
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2014-10-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1617753203

Part-murder mystery and part-family saga, this dramatic and often hilarious novel explores the history of Los Angeles's Iranian-Jewish community.

A Big Apple Christmas

A Big Apple Christmas
Author: Vasthi Reyes Acosta
Publisher: Barbour Publishing
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2007
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781597898195

Enjoy a contemporary romance collection of four heartwarming novellas that capture the sights and sounds of Christmas in New York City. Christmas plans are set askew when a schedule-bound professional organizer meets a free-spirited poet. Holiday bustle is the means two tourists try to use to get lost in the crowds. Christmas in Rockerfeller Center puts a widow's dreams on center stage. The gift of the Magi comes full circle for two lonely Latinos. Romance is in the air from Fifth Avenue to Chinatown, but can faith bring the love home?

The Jews of Iran

The Jews of Iran
Author: Houman M. Sarshar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2014-09-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857727656

Living continuously in Iran for over 2700 years, Jews have played an integral role in the history of the country. Frequently understood as a passive minority group, and often marginalized by the Zoroastrian and succeeding Muslim hegemony,, the Jews of Iran are instead portrayed in this book as having had an active role in the development of Iranian history, society, and culture. Examining ancient texts, objects, and art from a wide range of times and places throughout Iranian history, as well as the medieval trade routes along which these would have travelled, The Jews of Iran offers in-depth analysis of the material and visual culture of this community. Additionally, an exploration of modern novels and accounts of Jewish-Iranian women's experiences sheds light on the social history and transformations of the Jews of Iran from the rule of Cyrus the Great (c. 600-530 BCE) to the Iranian Revolution of 1978/9 and onto the present day. By using the examples of women writers such as Gina Barkhordar Nahai and Dalia Sofer, the implications of fictional representation of the history of the Jews of Iran and the vital importance of communal memory and tradition to this community are drawn out. By examining the representation of identity construction through lenses of religion, gender, and ethnicity, the analysis of these writers' work highlights how the writers undermine the popular imagining and imaging of the Jewish 'other' in an attempt to create a new narrative integrating the Jews of Iran into the idea of what it means to be Iranian. This long view of the Jewish cultural influence on Iran's social, economic, political, and cultural development makes this book a unique contribution to the field of Judeo-Iranian studies and to the study of Iranian history more broadly.

Caspian Rain

Caspian Rain
Author: Gina B. Nahai
Publisher: Anchor Canada
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2011-01-14
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0385673019

From the best-selling author of Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, a stirring, lyrical tale that offers American readers unique insight into the inner workings of Iranian society. In the decade before the Islamic Revolution, Iran is a country on the brink of explosion. Twelve-year-old Yaas is born into an already divided family: Her father is the son of wealthy Iranian Jews who are integrated into the country’s upper-class, mostly Muslim elite; her mother was raised in the slums of South Tehran, one street away from the old Jewish ghetto. Yaas spends her childhood navigating the many layers of Iranian society. Her task, already difficult because of the disparity in her parents’ worldview, becomes all the more critical when her father falls in love with a beautiful woman from a noble Muslim family. As her parents’ marriage begins to crumble and the country moves ever closer to revolution, Yaas is plagued by a mysterious and terrifying illness. But despite her ailment, when she learns that her father is about to abandon her and her mother—to immigrate to America with his mistress—Yaas is determined to save herself and her family. At once a cultural exploration of an as-yet-unfamiliar society and a psychological study of the effects of loss, Caspian Rain takes the reader inside the tragic and fascinating world of a brave young girl struggling against impossible odds.

Drawing in the Dust

Drawing in the Dust
Author: Zoe Klein
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 371
Release: 2009-07-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1416599126

Scorned for agreeing to help an Arab couple excavate allegedly haunted grounds under their house, archaeologist Page Brookstone finds what may be the tomb of the prophet Jeremiah, as well as the remains of a woman, and intriguing scrolls documenting their relationship.