Parnaz Foroutan. (2015). The Girl from the Garden: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Parnaz Foroutan. 2015. The Girl From the Garden: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Parnaz Foroutan, The Girl From the Garden: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2015.

Parnaz Foroutan. The Girl From the Garden: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2015.

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     Parnaz Foroutan is the author of Home is a Stranger and The Girl from the Garden. She was born in Iran and spent her early childhood there. She received PEN USA's Emerging Voices fellowship for this novel, which was inspired by her own family history. She has been named to the Hedgebrook fellowship and residency, and received funding from the Elizabeth George Foundation, among other institutions. She currently lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters.

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2015-08-18T00:00:00-04:00

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The Girl from the Garden

fullDescription

An extraordinary new writer makes her literary debut with this suspenseful novel of desire, obsession, power and vulnerability, in which a crisis of inheritance leads to the downfall of a wealthy family of Persian Jews in early twentieth-century Iran.

For all his wealth and success, Asher Malacouti—the head of a prosperous Jewish family living in the Iranian town of Kermanshah—cannot have the one thing he desires above all: a male son. His young wife Rakhel, trapped in an oppressive marriage at a time when a woman's worth is measured by her fertility, is made desperate by her failure to conceive, and grows jealous and vindictive.

Her despair is compounded by her sister-in-law Khorsheed's pregnancy and her husband's growing desire for Kokab, his cousin's wife. Frustrated by his wife's inability to bear him an heir, Asher makes a fateful choice that will shatter the household and drive Rakhel to dark extremes to save herself and preserve her status within the family.

Witnessed through the memories of the family's only surviving daughter, Mahboubeh, now an elderly woman living in Los Angeles, The Girl from the Garden unfolds the complex, tragic history of her family in a long-lost Iran of generations past. Haunting, suspenseful and inspired by events in the author's own family, it is an evocative and poignant exploration of sacrifice, betrayal, and the indelible legacy of the families that forge us.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Willamette Week
   • content:

     "A lush debut... Foroutan is a modern-day Scheherazade, weaving her tale through the entire 20th century, from an aging woman in her L.A. garden to the brothers whose determination to spawn heirs tortured the harem she was raised in." — Willamette Week

     "A powerful and moving novel about the devastating choices women face when their worth is tied to their wombs but not themselves. Parnaz Foroutan takes the timeless themes of love, honor, sacrifice and betrayal and makes them new." — Gloria Steinem

     "The Girl from the Garden is a spectacular novel-a riveting, finely wrought portrait of loss, longing, and passion in the intimate lives of an extended family in Iran. Foroutan is a writer of astounding talent, and her tale is moving and unforgettable." — Carolina De Robertis, author of The Invisible Mountain

     Set against the tumultuous backdrop of early 20th century Iran, The Girl from the Garden is an evocative tale of loss, betrayal and family ties. Parnaz Foroutan is a stunning new literary talent, and her debut novel is a gift to readers everywhere. — Amy Greene, author of Bloodroot

     In her debut novel, Parnaz Foroutan has written an incantatory tale of love, sacrifice and an unquenchable yearning for paradise. Foroutan unfurls a sensuous, poetic tapestry of gardens and seasons, of women enshrouded and silenced by culture, of men made intractable by honor, religious tradition and filial loyalty. — Melissa Pritchard, author of PalmerinoandA Solemn Pleasure

     "Some novels open the door to historical worlds you've never seen before, worlds that contain unforgivable cruelty and spectacular grace. Parnaz Foroutan's The Girl from the Garden is just such a novel, a powerful story about the contorted lives of women in an ancient patriarchy, radiantly told." — Robert Eversz, author of Zero to the Bone

     "In this stunning first novel, Foroutan draws on her own family history to integrate the lore and traditions of old Iran. Suspenseful and haunting, this riveting story of jealousy, sacrifice, and betrayal and the intimately drawn characters within will not be easily forgotten." — Booklist (starred review)

     "Foroutan's lyrical debut offers a mosaic of stories...Deftly structured, this novel traces those complications to their core, exposing the pain, oppressive forces, and difficult allegiances within and without the estate, while lending grace through the delicacy of its observation." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

     "Foroutan's characters grapple, often vainly, for control against larger forces—a God who doesn't answer prayers, a state that doesn't recognize their humanity, and people who cannot be made to bend to their needs, no matter how badly they love them." — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

     "Drawing on her own family history, in The Girl from the Garden debut novelist Parnaz Foroutan offers an evocative portrait of Iranian Jewish culture, and the experience of being a woman who felt that both her family, and her body—which dictated her worth—had betrayed her." — Bustle.com, 16 Of August 2015's Best Books You'll Love

     "Parnaz Foroutan's scorching debut novel, The Girl From the Garden, takes us to Iran, where a couple's inability to conceive pits a young wife against her tyrannical husband, who will stop at nothing to secure an heir." — W Magazine (online), 3 Books to Add to Your Summer Reading List

     "2015 is proving to be a year filled with awesome...

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from July 13, 2015
     Foroutan's richly layered debut explores the dark political maneuverings inside a single household in a Jewish enclave in Iran. When Rakhel marries Asher Malacouti, the most prosperous Jewish businessman in the town of Kermanshah, it seems like an ideal match. Asher is consumed with the need to have a male child to inherit the business, and Rakhel is desperate to conceive, but she appears to be barren—a fact that becomes even more wrenching when her sister-in-law has little trouble getting pregnant. After several years, Asher takes the radical step of taking a second wife: his cousin's disgraced ex-wife, Kokab, whom he has lusted after for years. Rakhel resorts first to subtle manipulation and then to more drastic measures in order to retain her husband's attentions and keep her place in the household secure. Eventually, during the Iranian Revolution, she leaves for America. In present-day southern California, Rakhel's niece, Mahboubeh, now an old woman, attempts to find common ground with the bitter old woman she remembers from childhood. The framework of flashbacks within flashbacks (present-day Mahboubeh, Mahboubeh as a young girl, Rakhel as a young woman) can be difficult to navigate, but Rakhel's slow descent into darkness exhilaratingly propels the plot, and Foroutan's sumptuous prose paints a vivid portrait of a rarely explored historical and cultural setting.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     July 1, 2015
     

     In this debut novel, Mahboubeh Malacouti, an elderly woman living in Los Angeles, recalls the stories surrounding her family in early 1900s Iran. Through her memories, Mahboubeh brings to life her Uncle Asher, the wealthiest Jewish man in the town of Kermanshah, and his young, barren wife, Rakhel. As Mahboubeh describes Asher's obsession with having an heir, she begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding her mother's death and confronts the unsavory darkness beneath her uncle's exterior. Inspired by her own family history, Foroutan's fluid narrative successfully paints an immersive tale of the inner strength of women living in a time and within a culture when their personal thoughts and opinions were unwelcomed by men and meant to be kept to themselves. VERDICT Though Foroutan is better at writing about the past than the present (the portrait of modern-day Mahboubeh is sketchy and leaves much to be desired--perhaps another novel?), she clearly has a gift for storytelling. Readers who enjoyed Nadia Hashimi's The Pearl That Broke Its Shell and similar tales of young women overcoming personal obstacles will certainly appreciate. [See Prepub Alert, 2/9/15.]--Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

     Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from June 1, 2015
     After his father's death, Asher grew his holdings until the Malacoutis were the most prosperous family in their Iranian town. Now he longs for a son to continue the legacy, but his wife, Rakhel, has yet to conceive. Practically still a child herself, Rakhel knows that her worth depends on her ability to produce an heir, and she feels desperate in the face of her repeated failures. When her sister-in-law, Khorsheed, gives birth to the family's first scion, Rakhel sinks further into despair, growing increasingly resentful and withdrawn. Distracted by his desire for a son and a passionate longing for his cousin's beautiful wife, Kokab, Asher makes a decision that will alter the entire family's life and force Rakhel to take actions of her own to ensure her future. Their fateful tale is recounted by Khorsheed's daughter, Mahboubeh, now an elderly woman herself, left only with these memories of a family destroyed by passion and envy. In this stunning first novel, Foroutan draws on her own family history to integrate the lore and traditions of old Iran. Suspenseful and haunting, this riveting story of jealousy, sacrifice, and betrayal and the intimately drawn characters within will not be easily forgotten.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     March 1, 2015
     

     Iranian-born Foroutan draws on family history to write this novel, which won her a PEN USA's Emerging Voices fellowship. Asher Malacouti heads up a thriving Jewish family in the Iranian town of Kermanshah but can't have the one thing he wants: a male heir. Even as his wife, Rakhel, grows increasingly bitter because she cannot conceive--in this society, the only measure of her worth--Asher makes a choice that drives Rakhel to extreme measures. The tale is told by an elderly woman, the family's one surviving daughter, from her home in Los Angeles. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

     Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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An extraordinary new writer makes her literary debut with this suspenseful novel of desire, obsession, power and vulnerability, in which a crisis of inheritance leads to the downfall of a wealthy family of Persian Jews in early twentieth-century Iran.

For all his wealth and success, Asher Malacouti—the head of a prosperous Jewish family living in the Iranian town of Kermanshah—cannot have the one thing he desires above all: a male son. His young wife Rakhel, trapped in an oppressive marriage at a time when a woman's worth is measured by her fertility, is made desperate by her failure to conceive, and grows jealous and vindictive.

Her despair is compounded by her sister-in-law Khorsheed's pregnancy and her husband's growing desire for Kokab, his cousin's wife. Frustrated by his wife's inability to bear him an heir, Asher makes a fateful choice that will shatter the household and drive Rakhel to dark extremes to save herself and preserve her status within...

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