gina.nahai@gmail.com
www.ginabnahai.com
Teaching Experience
University of Southern California, Full Time Lecturer, Master of Professional Writing
Program, (2007-present)
University of Southern California, Half Time Lecturer, Master of Professional Writing
Program, (1999-2007)
University of Southern California, Lecturer, Freshman Writing Program, (1985-1988)
Non-Teaching Work Experience
The Rand Corporation, Consultant. Project sponsored by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy. Worked with Francis Fukyuama (1985-1987)
University of California, Los Angeles, Department of History, Research Assistant for
Professor Richard Ashcroft (1980-1981)
Book Publications
The Luminous Heart of Jonah S., Novel, Akashic, October 2014
Caspian Rain, Novel, MacAdam/Cage, 2007 (paperback by MacAdam/Cage)
Sunday’s Silence, Novel, Harcourt, 2001 (paperback by Washington Square Press)
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, Novel, Harcourt, 1999 (paperback by Washington
Square Press)
Cry of the Peacock, Novel, Crown, 1992 (paperback by Washington Square Press)
Book Publications in Translation
Caspian Rain
Italy / RH Mondadori
Greece / Livanis
Brazil / Geracao
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Germany / Marebuch
Serbia / Mono & Manana
Israel / Ofarim
Spain / El Anden
Czech Republic / Euromedia
Slovak Republic / Ikar
Poland / Ksiaznica
Denmark / Aschehoug
Portugal / Quidnovi
Taiwan / Yuan-Liou
China / Guangxi Normal
Turkey / Bercem
Sunday’s Silence
England/S&S;
Netherlands/Prometheus;
Germany/Luebbe,
Poland/Ksianznica;
Slovakia/Slovart
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith
England/S&S;
Germany/Luebbe;
France/Editions de la Table Ronde; I taly/Piemme;
Netherlands/Prometheus/Burt Bakker;
Sweden/Wahlstrom; Denmark/Viva-Wangel/audio AV Forlaget;
Brazil/Geracao;
Czechoslovakia/Rybka;
Poland/Ksiaznica Wydawnictwo;
Hungary/Magyar Konyvklub;
Greece/Livani; Israel/Hed Arzi;
Turkey/Citlenbik;
Slovakia/Slovart;
Serbia/Narodna Krjinga
Cry of the Peacock
England/S&S,
Germany/Luebbe,
Italy/Piemme; Brazil/Geracao;
France/Editions de la Table Ronde;
Holland/Prometheus/Burt Bakker;
Poland/Ksiaznica;
Israel/Modan
Essays/Chapters in Anthologies
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“The Gravedigger’s Kaddish,” Tehran Noir, Akashic Books, 2014
“Tehran Noir,” short story, Fall 2014
“In Literature,” The Persian Square, 2013
“The Third Temple,” The Journal of the Casden Institute at USC, 2009-2010
"The Pearl Cannon", Triquarterly, 2008-2009
Chapter in If Salt Had Memory, 2008-2009
Essay in Shma' Magazine, 2008-2009
Essay in 614: HBI, 2007-2008
Essay, "Mercy" in Modern Jewish Girl's Guide to Guilt, 2006-2007
Short story, “Murder in Holmby Hills” in Tremors, New Fiction by Iranian American
Writers, 2013
Excerpts from Cry of the Peacock, Posen Library of Jewish Literature, 2013
Magazine/Newspaper/ Online Publications
Monthly Column, “Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles,” 2010-present
Jewish LA, “The Jewish Forward,” October, 2014
Book Reviews:
“A Promising Premise that Goes Nowhere,” Review of The Master Butchers Singing
Club By Louise Erdich, Chicago Tribune, February 9, 2003
“An Authentic Voice from the Margins,” Review of Roofwalker By Susan Power,
Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2002
“Behind the Veil,” Review of ESTHER’S CHILDREN: A Portrait of Iranian Jews Edited
By Houman Sarshar, Los Angeles Times, June 9, 2002
“Destiny’s Child,” Review of I, the Divine: A Novel in First Chapters By Rabih
Alameddine, Los Angeles Times, December 16, 2001
“A Father’s Debilitating Illness Cripples His Daughter,” Review of An Invisible Sign of
My Own by Aimee Bender, San Francisco Chronicle, June 16, 2000
“The Last Great Revolution,” Review of The Last Great Revolution: Turmoil and
Transformation in Iran By Robin Wright, San Francisco Chronicle, May 14, 2000
Articles:
“No Matter What, We’ve Already Won,” Huffington Post, June 18, 2009
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“Iran’s Never-Ending Movie,” TheWrap.com, May 11, 2009
“What You Don’t Know About Your College Education,” Huffington Post, January 6,
2009
“It Gets Worse,” Huffington Post, January 6, 2009
“And You Thought Walmart Employees Had It Bad,” Huffington Post, December 15,
2008
“The Great Shame of America’s Colleges,” Huffington Post, December 14, 2008
“Even Paranoid People Have Real Enemies,” Huffington Post, February 27, 2008
“The Lesser of All Tyrants,” Huffington Post, June 19, 2007
“The Unintended Benefits of the Mess in Iraq,” Huffington Post, June 15, 2007
“Bush’s Next Job,” The Huffington Post, June 6, 2006
“Persian Gardens,” Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2006
“On to the Vatican,” Huffington Post, June 1, 2005
“Where I Live,” Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2005
“An L.A. Author Feels San Francisco’s Chill,” Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2002
Theater:
Becoming American (one act), staged reading by Jewish Women’s Theater, 4 performances, March 2012; staged reading at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, November 2012
Persian Gardens (one act), staged reading by Jewish Women’s Theater, 4 performances,
March 2012; staged reading at UCLA’s Fowler Museum, November 2012
Cooking Lessons (one act), staged reading by Jewish Women’s Theater, 4 performances,
May 19-26, 2013
Saffron and Rosewater, staged reading, November 23, 2013; 92 nd Street Y, Kaufman
Concert Hall.
Honors and Awards
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Finalist, Essay, Los Angeles Press Club Award, 2013
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith selected as one of “The Best LA Books/Fiction” by the
Los Angeles Times, October 4, 2011
Finalist, Essay, Los Angeles Press Club Award, 2011
Winner, First Place, Persian Heritage Award 2008
Finalist, Essay, Los Angeles Press Club Award, 2008
Caspian Rain nominated by MacAdam Cage Publishing for the National Book Award,
2007
Caspian Rain nominated by MacAdam Cage Publishing for the Pulitzer Prize, 2007
Caspian Rain selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” Chicago Tribune,
December, 2007
Caspian Rain selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” San Francisco Chronicle,
December, 2007
Finalist, Essay, Los Angeles Press Club Award, 2007
Judge, Fiction/First Fiction Category: LA Times Book Prizes, 2005, 2006
Winner: Simon Rockower Award, 2002
Sunday’s Silence selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” Los Angeles Times,
December, 2001
Final Long List: Orange Prize for Fiction, 2000
Finalist: IMPAC Award, 2000
Finalist: Harold U. Ribalow Award, 2000
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” Los
Angeles Times, December, 1999
Cry of the Peacock nominated by Crown Publishers for the Pulitzer Prize, 1992
First Place: Los Angeles Arts Council Award for Fiction, 1988
First Place: Distinguished Masters Thesis Award, USC, 1988
First Place: Phi Kappa Phi Award, USC, 1986
Honorable Mention: Nelson Algren Award, Chicago Magazine, 1985
Professional Recognition
American Jewish University’s “Burning Bush Award,” 2010
Bradeis University’s National Women’s Committee Award, 2008
Brandeis University, “Words, Wit, and Wisdom” Award (Twice)
Honoree, Hadassah, North America
Honoree, Jewish National Fund
Honoree, B’nai Zion, Western Region
Conferences
Speaker/Presenter:
Iranian American Women’s Leadership Conference, Orange County, CA, September 8,
2013
Iranian American Women’s Leadership Conference, Washington, D.C., June 23, 2012
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Cal State University, Long Beach Writer’s Conference, November 10, 2011
Iranian American Women’s Leadership Conference, Irvine, California, October 23, 2011
Jewish Libraries Association Annual Conference, June 18, 2011
Attendee:
History, Unlimited, UCLA April 21, 2012
American Jewish Congress, 2012
Digital Book Conference, Book Expo America, May 2010
Lectures
2014
September 12-American Jewish University
August 7-Westwood Library
May 8-Hadassah Southern California
February 2-30 Years After
January 9-Stephen S. Wise Temple
2013
November 3, 2013-National Council of Jewish Women
October 16, 2013-Anti-Defamation League, Japanese-American Museum
October 5, 2013-San Diego Public Library
June 8, 2013-Levantine Cultural Center
March 8-9-Temple Beth Shalom, Palm Springs, CA, Scholar in Residence
April 13-Golestan, Berkeley, CA, Speaker
April 17-American Jewish University, Keynote Speaker
2012
January 25-Southern California Connections, Panelist
April 7-Shalhevet High School, Keynote Speaker
May 1-Universal Love Foundation, Keynote Speaker
May 20-Larger Than Life, Keynote Speaker
2011
March 8—Keynote speaker, 30 Voices, Los Angeles
April 7—Speaker, Shalhevet High School
April 30—Speaker, LA Times Festival of Books
May 5—Keynote Speaker, Universal Love Foundation
October 23—Speaker, Iranian American Leadership Foundation
December 5—Speaker, California State University, Long Beach
2010
January 18--Women’s Philharmonic Society, Costa Mesa, CA
March 4--Progressive Jewish Alliance, Skirball Cultural Center
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March 11--Best of Times: Writing in the Age of the Internet, USC
March 14--Tucson Festival of Books, Tucson, AZ (March 14)
March 23--Friends of the Casden Institute, USC
October 4--San Diego Jewish Women’s Alliance
October 10—30 Years After Civic Action Conference
November 13—Soroptimists, La Habra
November 14—“Sunday Word Play,” Milken Community High School
2005-2009
American Jewish Congress, Annual Board of Directors Meeting
Casden Institute, USC
Loyola Marymount University
Decatur Book Festival, ATL, Georgia
Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, USC
Los Angeles Public Library
Newport Beach Public Library
Georgetown University
Centenary College
Brandeis University, NY
UCLA Friends of English
LACMA
Pacific Asia Museum
Bowers Museum
Autry National Center
Los Angeles Central Library, ALOUD
Skirball Cultural Center
Google Headquarters, Palo Alto, CA
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Santa Barbara Literary Festival
San Francisco Central Library
San Clemente Public Library
Toronto International Festival of Authors
Miami Book Festival
Decatur Book Festival, Atlanta
American Jewish University
West Hollywood Festival of Books
NCIBA
Twin Cities Book Festival
San Diego JCC Book Festival
Fullerton Book Festival
AAUW
Hadassah International
International Women’s Forum
Jewish National Fund Annual Conference
Long Beach Women’s Conference
Nextbook—Los Angeles
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Nextbook—Chicago,
Nextbook--Seattle
Washington, DC Jewish Literary Festival
Marcus Jewish Community Center
Irvine JCC Book Festival
Ann Arbor JCC
San Francisco JCC
Detroit Jewish Book Council
Jewish Federation, San Gabriel and Pomona
American Association of University Women, Laguna Beach
American Association of University Women, Long Beach
Women’s American ORT
Women for Conservative Judaism
Women of LA/Women of Washington
Women’s Media Group
Women’s Dialogue, Los Angeles
IAWC (Iranian American Writers of Southern California)
IWOSC (Independent Writers of Southern California)
San Francisco BJE Jewish Community Library
Jewish Community Center, Irvine
Thirty-Years-After National Conference
Associated Writing Programs, Chicago
Casden Institute, USC
Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities, USC
Newport Beach Public Library
Beverly Hills Public Library
Westwood Public Library
Boards
Thirty Years After, Board of Advisors
PEN Center USA West, Board of Directors
International Women’s Media Foundation, Board of Advisors
B’nai Zion Western Region, Board of Directors
International Women’s Forum, Member
Maple Counseling Center, Beverly Hills
Television Appearances
In the United States
PBS—Tavis Smiley Show
CNBC—Dennis Miller Show
KTTV TV—News
News Channel 8, Springfield, VA—“Weekday Report”
WUSA TV, Washington, D.C. “Morning News
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News Channel 8, Washington, D.C., “Afternoon Report”
WAGA TV, Atlanta, “Good Day Atlanta”
Jewish Television Network
Radio Interviews
KCRW
KPCC
KPFK
KABC Radio
KALW Radio
Weekend Edition Sunday, National Public Radio
Diane Rehm Show, NPR
Milt Rosenberg Show, NPR
Voice of America
WCCO Radio, Minneapolis
WGN Radio, Chicago
WILL Radio
WNYC Radio
Wisconsin Public Radio
Working Assets Radio
WIP Radio, Conversations
CHIN FM Radio, Zelda Young Show
Minnesota Public Radio, Midmorning
WGN Radio, Extension 720
KUOW, NPR, The Conversation
WABE Radio, NPR, Between the Lines
KUCI Radio, NPR, Writers on Writing
WVIK, NPR, About Books
Michael Dresser’s Show
KCLU Radio, NPR, Beyond Words
WVMT Newstalk Radio, Charlie and Ernie in the Morning
WRPN Radio, Morning Show
WLW Radio, Jim Scott Show
WICO Newstalk Radio
WGVU, NPR, Morning Show
WDOK Radio, Cleveland Connection
KVON Radio, Late Morning Edition
KWGS, NPR, Studio Tulsa
Cable Radio News, The AM Show
KCMN Radio, Morning Show
Media Tracks Radio, Viewpoints
Westwood One Radio Network, Entertainment News
KYW Newstalk Radio
WQUB Radio, NPR, Conversations
KPQ Radio, 2 o’clock Show
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WCBM Radio, Maggie Pascal Show
WTBQ Radio, Morning Show
WABE Radio, NPR, Between the Lines
KUCI, NPR, Writers on Writing
Favorable Reviews and Features in the Printed Press
Western Europe, South America, Asia, China, Taiwan,The Middle East, and Eastern
Europe available upon request
In the United States
CASPIAN RAIN
A Los Angeles Times Bestseller
A September 2007 Booksense Selection
A Chicago Tribune “2007 Favorite”
"This novel is nothing less than a literary sensation, not only because it revives Iran's past in a heavenly precise prose, but also since we will all too soon desperately look for books which explain this country. To truly understand Iran, you have to read this novel." --
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
“Entrancing…Caspian Rain is a beautiful study in disappointment and ineffable loss, in the conflict between duty and desire. Nahai shows her characters just as they are, damaged. They are keenly aware of how they'd like to change their lives – and of how limited their options really are.” – Los Angeles Times
“Nahai evokes even peripheral characters in vivid detail: the daughter of Argentine exiles
(and suspected Nazis) blares tango music from her window and shows up at her parents’ funeral with a hot-pink flower behind her ear; a former student activist, broken under torture by the secret police, scavenges for dead women’s hair…” – New Yorker
“A glimpse into a largely alien culture. Nahai tells [the] story with elegance and insight.”
–
New York Times Book Review
“Nahai’s power as a story-teller flows from her desire to weave the brutal facts of modern
Iranian history with fantastic narratives of familial rupture and political displacement.
American readers will be absorbed by [her] colorful evocation of the characters. From her clear-eyed yet deeply emphatic perch in the New World, Nahai sounds the emotional costs of exile as she explores the trauma of loss for her fellow émigrés. She is, after all, that subculture’s finest chronicler.” – Chicago Tribune
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“…beautiful and haunting…Nahai's narrative skill and linguistic talent shine.”
– San Francisco Chronicle
“Heartbreakingly captivating, Nahai’s novel nonetheless evokes hope…darkly enticing…Set in pre-revolution Iran, this somber, beautifully written novel is a look into the unfulfilled lives of a hugely dysfunctional Iranian Jewish family and a far-reaching story of the ever-persevering human spirit…Nahai's writing is poetic, with provocative turns of phrase over which to pause….”
– Miami Herald
“Nahai deftly creates the smells and daily routines of an old Tehran neighborhood…[and] a colorful cast of quirky characters.” – Washington Post
“Caspian Rain guides readers deep into the inner sanctum of one painfully divided family in the years leading up to Iran's Islamic Revolution…Nahai has you hooked from start to finish…Her unusual yet effective narrative flow portrays this world in a way that leaves behind the typical ‘veils and misogyny’ stereotypes most Americans know from contemporary Iran. And yet, Nahai's story gives colorful narrative to the cultural forces at play in the years leading up to the arrival of Islamic fundamentalism in this most misunderstood country…an uncommonly poignant tale. Caspian Rain is an English major’s book—even the smallest aside reinforces the book’s overarching themes of loss and exile. Each detail, each character Nahai conceives is, as Yaas notes, ‘Tragic to the core, but also mesmerizing.’ ” – Chicago Sun-Times
“Readers are allowed a singular look into the world of Iranian Jews and their hierarchy…This lyrical and literary novel is beautifully written.” – USA Today
“Vivid and accurate…In Caspian Rain Gina B. Nahai demonstrates that suffering is a cultural imprint…Perhaps Nahai’s intention is best illuminated by the naming of her characters. In Persian, Omid means Hope, Bahar means spring or renewal, and Yaas means Poet’s Jasmine. But Yaas also means sorrow. It is our job to understand the relationship of the three, and to unravel the web they’ve woven around loss. “ San Jose
Mercury News and Contra Costa Times
“This tender story, set during the shah’s rule before the Iranian revolution, has the inevitability of Greek tragedy…[Nahai] offers readers a striking recollection of the sounds, smells and landscapes of her native land. This is a beautifully written picture of a culture caught between the modern West and ancient Islam.” – Providence Journal
“Like drops of acid, Gina Nahai’s words burn the pages of this moving novel about the fate of women in pre-revolutionary Iran. Nahai’s alluring poetic style draws us into the lives of her female characters. We identify with their hopes and desires, but we also sense their frustration. Beneath the novel’s calm and captivating prose is a powerful testament to Iranian women’s fight against oppression.”
– Ms. Magazine
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“…beautifully rendered, with passages that urge rereading…Nahai is a born storyteller.
Her novel resonates with an almost audible vibration, as though she had curled up next to you on a rainy evening and begun to spin her tale.” – Portland Tribune
“Spirit, a mystical tone, sharp social analysis and telling detail inform Caspian Rain, Gina
Nahai's fine novel about Iran in the '70s, before mullah rule replaced the monarchy of
Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi in the Islamic Revolution…vivid…singularly poignant.”
– Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Nahai's compelling novel depicts one family's tale of alienation and loss…a vivid study of a broken home.” – Entertainment Weekly
“The interlocking tales read like myths; Nahai’s writing is compassionate even as it indicts.” – Los Angeles Magazine
“Gina B. Nahai's beguiling fourth novel Caspian Rain provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives of a lost world — those of Jewish-Iranians living under the Shah…[it] sheds light on the hypocrisies, emotional deprivations and inter-class tensions within the city's
Jewish community. Nahai's group portrait is rich, complex and unsparing, rendered with a highly professional prose style.” – Tennessean
“A story that blooms into full imaginative flower…In an indication of Nahai's talent and powers of invention, she invests her narrative with a strong tragic inevitability…vivid and credible cast of characters, and a visual sense of Tehran and Iranian society as experienced by Jews living under what was, for them, the liberal policies of the Shah.” –
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
“[Nahai] focuses on one family, humanizing a people and a place that, these days, are more often associated with uranium-enrichment programs and sponsorship of terrorism….she’s deft at painting a bleak picture that we want to look at—not as a morbid curiosity but as thoughtful, often heartbreaking art.” – Paste Magazine
“Caspian Rain is a thrill to read. Heartbreak and hope fill the pages. Nahai delves deep into fear, love, jealousy, and obsession—and with evocative language, and a rich and complex story, takes us to another culture.” – The Brooklyn Rail
“Nahai’s story of a haunted Jewish family in Tehran during the shah’s last years possesses the dark beauty and harsh lessons of a fairy tale…Nahai’s poetic and cathartic drama speaks for all silenced women, for all who are tyrannized.” – Booklist STARRED review
“…both a riveting family drama and compelling historical fiction…The multiple ways
Jews and Muslims intersect is also clearly presented, offering a fascinating glimpse into
Persian life prior to the 1979 insurgency. Richly detailed, emotionally intense, and tremendously moving, this work is highly recommended.”
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– Library Journal STARRED review
“In her stirring fourth novel, Nahai explores the struggles of an Iranian family in the tenuous decade before the Islamic revolution…a poignant tale of a ‘damaged family.’”
– Publishers Weekly
“…beautifully written, absorbing and moving…magical…[Nahai] does a beautiful job of ushering us through an Iran most of us don't know – of colors and scents, of mountains and beaches, of slums and mansions…the poetry and the emotional quality of Nahai's writing will linger long after the book is closed.”
– Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
“Gina Nahai’s powerful storytelling voice illuminates an intriguing foreign culture and blasts our preconceived views of Iranian Jewish émigrés. Nahai, a gifted and poetic writer, deserves a wide readership both for her ability to humanize a country many
Americans perceive as hostile and extreme and for the light she sheds on Iranian Jewish history and culture.” San Diego Jewish Journal
“Remarkable…Caspian Rain offers a troublingly beautiful portrait of an array of characters as families disintegrate and dreams go awry. There is so much empathy in a book laced with cruelty and so many inventive flights of fancy in a novel deep in traps made of false hope. This is a smartly executed story of longing and emptiness and of both cacophony and silence.” Jewish Book World
“…lovely and graceful…Nahai's writing is poetic and original, sometimes stark and sometimes transcendent…Poetic and original…” – BookReporter.com
“Yaas recounts the story of her family’s unraveling against a rich cast of secondary characters…Caspian Rain is a moving mother-daughter story with a wealth of interesting characters.” – The Feminist Review
“[Told] in a unique, rhythmic voice that’s equal parts hope and cynicism…Caspian Rain gracefully depicts the dynamics of a divided family by taking us through the diverse spheres and structures of Iranian society not often glimpsed in English literature.”
– Venus Zine
“Caspian Rain is a beautifully written book about the constraints of living in a Middle-
Eastern culture. Focusing on the lives of two Jewish women living in Iran during the rule of the Shah, it is an intimate portrait of hope betrayed, lost, and regained…[a] poignant story.” – Curledup.com
“Caspian Rain is a fascinating, tragic coming-of-age story…Some beautiful writing and a compelling story…A rare glimpse into one family’s inner sanctum prior to Iran’s Islamic
Revolution.” Bookmarks Magazine
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”Nahai's writing is poetic and original, sometimes stark and sometimes transcendent.
Poetic and original also describes this tale. Because there is a sweetness to Nahai's prose, an otherwise gloomy and hopeless tale is lovely and graceful.” Bookreporter.com
“…a beautifully written inside view of Jewish-Iranian culture…Gina B. Nahai captivates with this tale of Iranian despondency the same way Isabel Allende opens the confusion and horrors of Central and South America.” – PopSyndicate.com
“ Nahai’s prose is at once elegant and tinged with melancholy…An enlightening glimpse into an unfamiliar culture and society. While the societal constraints—especially against women—might be a little difficult for some to relate to, the family divided, sadly, is a theme that is universal.” “Laist.com
“Filled with hope and despair, Caspian Rain is Nahai's most emotional and inspiring novel yet. Nahai's heroine—the inspired and inspiring Yaas—learns the lessons of obedience, subservience, and forbearance, and then chooses a surprising and unexpected path.”
– Lisa See, author of Peony in Love and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
“In Caspian Rain, Gina Nahai writes with subtlety and grace about the unappeasable forces of culture, class and family which shape the life of a young girl growing up in
Jewish Tehran before the mullahs.”
– Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander and Paint it Black
“Unexpected and heartrending, but also witty, elegiac, sophisticated and edgy. Caspian
Rain is a beautiful book.” – Chris Abani, author of Graceland and The Virgin of Flames
“Caspian Rain once more proves Gina B. Nahai's ability to create through her wonderfully lyrical prose a fictional world that, while rooted in a particular culture and history, is universally relevant and appealing.” – Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in
Tehran
“With her fourth novel, Gina B. Nahai establishes herself among the top rank of writers of her generation. In Caspian Rain, she brings to stunning life a cast of characters that continues to haunt the reader.” – John Rechy, author of City of Night
“In exquisite, poetic vignettes, Caspian Rain tells the intense story of a mother and daughter in search of approval within upper-class Iranian social circles. Ultimately though, what they struggle towards is acceptance from one another. Nahai’s writing is a graceful balancing act between the lush and the stark. Her gorgeous sentences cut to the bone.”
– Cristina Garcia, author of Monkey Hunting and Dreaming in Cuban
“Gina Nahai's beautifully written novel Caspian Rain is evocative and poetic, with striking images that remain in the mind long after they are read. It is also a heartwrenching examination of the tragedies of women caught in the net of gender, history,
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family secrets and the unbending laws of high society. But ultimately it is a celebration of the human spirit—the moments of joy and courage and risk-taking that make all our lives worth living.”
– Chitra Divakaruni, author of Mistress of Spices and Queen of Dreams
“Lovers of the art of storytelling should know Gina B. Nahai. Much more than a fascinating, page-turning glimpse into the tribes and classes of Iran, Caspian Rain is an exquisite novel which, like a Ghost Boy on a bicycle, will continue to magically haunt its readers long after its ending.”
– Sandra Tsing Loh, author of Depth Takes a Holiday and A Year in Van Nuys
“Gina Nahai, a gifted storyteller with a unique and powerful voice, invites us into a strange, unsettling but ultimately beguiling world, a place of both pain and enchantment.
Remarkably, she allows to glimpse the hard realities of life in contemporary Iran in a new and unaccustomed light while, at the same time, she shows us that the innermost truths of the human heart are truly universal. Caspian Rain is both timely and timeless, an important book that comes at just the right time.”
– Jonathan Kirsch, author of A History of the End of the World
“In Caspian Rain, Gina Nahai takes us on a privileged journey into an Iran a contemporary traveler can only hope to know through fiction – an Iran before the Islamic
Revolution where women could aspire to independence and dream of larger lives.
Through the eyes of her 12-year-old heroine, we see a whole society mirrored, a society enmeshed in superstition but struggling to emerge into modernity. A heroine –and a book
– to embrace. I was mesmerized.”
–
Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, author of A Woman of Independent Means
“If writers do indeed write what they know, then Gina Nahai has a PhD in the human heart. Her characters inhabit their culture and their time so profoundly that her readers do too; from moments of magical realism to years of anxious drifting and struggling, Nahai's characters are as much in search of themselves as the turbulent nation they live in.” – Patt
Morrison, author of Rio L.A., Tales from the Los Angeles River
“The writing in Caspian Rain is so lyrical and flowing that you almost forget just how hard life can be for someone who is doomed to forever be an outsider. Bahar, who marries above her station, finds that she is isolated from both the family and society she marries into and the family and friends she left behind…Nahai has written a novel that illuminates a complex society while offering up a very specific and moving story of one woman's desire to maintain her dignity and tenuous standing within that diffident society.” – Laura Hansen, Bookin’ It (Little Falls, MN)
“Nahai’s prose…is at once elegant and tinged with melancholy…an enlightening glimpse into an unfamiliar culture and society.” – LAist.com
Sunday’s Silence
“One of the Best Books of 2001” LA Times
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“Exsquisite…Gina Nahai looks at snake-handling from the inside, and the cliché’s of
Appalachia slough off like old skin, revealing the fright and the awe that makes extreme
Christianity so potent. Because Nahai is not interested in sensationalizing such extreme religious notions, Sunday’s Silence demands that we pay them attention and lets us understand a little better their powerful lure.” Los Angeles Times
“A bold, passionate tale of fanaticism and seduction. Sensitively and vividly rendered.
Exotic, mythic…a tale told by a Scheherazade…parts of the tale told on different nights, each fascinating in its own right, each contributing to the story but also telling more than the story needs. Nahai lays her story of a strange folk and the enigma of charisma against a background rich in history. Sunday’s Silence is an ambitious and entertaining novel that will please fans of Nahai’s novels. It could also win her new readers.” Chicago Tribune
“Sunday’s Silence is exactly the kind of book that Americans need to be reading right now, a book in which East and West collide, not only in war, but in love. Nahai writes equally well about these two worlds, both beautiful and cruel, both filled with serpents real and imagined. The novel is a testament to the fact that even at our strangest we are not so different, that at our strangest we are most alike.” San Francisco Chronicle
“Gina Nahai has set her third novel in a world that is exotic, terrifying, and endlessly alluring. She has the ability to deploy the telling detail, to write …a marvelous sentence…passages that contain a wonderful, authentic rhythm.” The Washington Post
Book World
“Astonishing…a searing romance, a spiritual quest, a compelling tale. Myth, history, faith, love and desire crash into each other and burn throughout Sunday’s Silence but it is the interplay of all of these with fundamentalism that drives this lyrical work. Nahai’s true achievement is to dig deep into the heart, soul, and—perhaps more difficult—the psyche of Christian fundamentalism at its most extreme. Sunday’s Silence is an eloquent look into the heart of belief, into hearts of darkness and hearts of light.” The San Diego
Union-Tribune
“A literary tour-de-force…A novel of powerful magnetism…An accomplishment worth celebrating. Nahai skillfully weaves the tangled separate stories of her characters, and she does it as effectively as Faulkner did years earlier with the hidden lives of his characters.”
Denver Rocky Mountain News
“Haunting…Nahai’s dreamlike story beguiles with its depiction of a world where worshippers drink strychnine to prove their faith. Home, we learn, still casts a powerful spell.” People Magazine
“In the tradition of Southern Writers from Faulkner to O’Connor…Nahai captivates, filling her stories with characters and multi-voiced narratives that rival those of her earlier works.” Los Angeles Magazine
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“Unusual and enthralling. Nahai deftly explores the enigma of charisma. Most intriguing is the author’s highly stylistic treatment of the question of faith versus fanaticism and the notion of fear as the strongest motivating force for those who seeks salvation.” San
Antonio Express-News
“Valuable for its illumination of fanatical faith and for its revelation of cultures…Nahai’s
Appalachia is a place of isolated beauty, crushing poverty and appalling ignorance. Here, the holy rollers breed faith by fear, demanding members handle snakes, drink strychnine and plunge their limbs into fire as piety tests.” The Orlando Sentinel
“Faith versus fundamentalism, fear as a motivating force for seeking salvation…Nahai explores the enigma of charisma, opening a window on an insular world and rendering the ‘other’ America explicable.” Publishers Weekly
“A spectacular, disquieting, and poetic tale.” Bookreporter.com
Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith
One of the Best Books of 1999, by the Los Angeles Times
“A skilled and inventive writer, Nahai demonstrates in Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith that even the darkest magic cannot defeat the extraordinary powers of love … Nahai has achieved some wonderful effects, infusing everyday events with miraculous radiance.”
The New York Times Book Review
“Entrancing…a voice that never loses its poise, that balances cynicism with hope, warmth with satire, the heavy ballast of life with the exhilaration of being borne aloft.”
The Los Angeles Times Book Review
“Exotic and beautiful and rich…a seductive novel…A Testament to the power and beauty of Gina Nahai’s writing and the world she so brilliantly illuminates. We jump on the magic carpet, soar above the Avenue of Faith, satisfied to let this gifted storyteller weave her spell.” The Boston Globe
“A novel of stunning beauty and power…a supreme accomplishment. The magical realism so perfectly wrought by Garcia Marquez has rarely been equaled, perhaps only by
Toni Morrison in “Song of Solomon” and here in Nahai’s novel.” Cleveland Plain Dealer
“A multigenerational story as intricate and richly hued as a Persian carpet. As she revealed in ‘Cry of the Peacock’, Nahai possesses an array of talents, all of which glitter in ‘Moonlight’. Nahai’s writing recalls that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Amy Tan, yet her prose bears its own stamp of inventiveness and vivacity…A modern-day
Scheherazade” The Orlando Sentinel
“A sprawling tapestry of a novel…clear testimony to her skill as a storyteller. Gina
Nahai works in elegant contrasts, the spellbinding extremes of the best of the magical
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realist tradition, conjuring a story that glows as if lit by a subtle, internal fire.” Portland
Oregonian
“A nice addition to the canon of magic realism…Ms. Nahai’s lyrical command of her words carries through consistently. The book’s effectiveness deepens into a powerful and surprising final chapter.” The Dallas Morning News
“Lyrical, beautiful…a languid, steamy read.” The Toronto Star
“Absorbing…Through the power of Nahai’s language, the past becomes present…This book is not a fairytale, not a poem, not a mystery story. Like moonlight, it is a little of each. So the Avenue of Faith is not just the novel’s setting, but also the mindset that informs its characters—and readers.” The Virginian Pilot
“Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith paves the way for Ms. Nahai to claim her place among other cultural women writers such as Amy Tan and Toni Morrison. Readers will not only gain some insight into a new people, but will also discover a storyteller who captivates an audience.” Baltimore Jewish Times
“Spellbinding…Marvelously compelling.” Publisher’s Weekly
“Highly Recommended” Library Journal, Starred Review
“Beautifully written…a lush, absorbing novel.” Pat Holt/ former editor of San Francisco
Chronicle Book Review
Cry of the Peacock
Alternate selection of The Book of the Month Club and The Doubleday Book Club.
“A spellbinding story that is hard to put down.” The Los Angeles Times
“What is surprising is how well it succeeds. This is an important novel. For it sheds light on an enigmatic part of the world with which Westerners must reckon.” The Washington
Post
“A remarkable achievement. The author is first and foremost a storyteller who is able to move her complex plot along with beguiling dexterity. Hers is a novel on a grand scale. A significant work.” The Kansas City Star
“I knew before I opened “Cry of the Peacock” that I was embarking on something dangerous and unforgettable. I will never look at the Mideast quite the same again. Cry of the Peacock is an extremely important book, and fulfills one of the main tenets of reading: to learn and to understand.” Sun Sentinel, Florida
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“Poised between magic and history. An unusual and effective novel.” San Francisco
Chronicle
“Unusual…fascinating. Even the real political figures and historical events are somehow transformed by the poetry of Nahai’s style.” Houston Chronicle
“A series of linked tales that read like the Arabian Nights.” The Seattle Times/Seattle
Post-Intellingencer
“This fascinating book on a little known subject is essential for public library fiction collections.” Library Journal
“Nahai succeeds in personalizing history, opening a window onto the baffling political history of Iran and its neighbors.” Publishers Weekly
“Lots of period detail, vivid characters, and historical background make for an instructive read on a little-known era and place.” Kirkus
“Strongly recommended for contemporary fiction collections.” Booklist
“A sweeping tale of the persecution and intolerance of Jews in Iran. Throughout the novel flows an undercurrent of mysticism and superstition reminiscent of Latin American authors Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Isabelle Allende; but restrained by the realities of this world.” Bookreporter.com
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