Short description
A stunning and evocative first novel with the power of A THOUSAND SPLENDID SUNS, HALF OF A YELLOW SUN and THE ISLAND
Long description
Set in seventeenth-century Iran, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS is the powerful and haunting story of a young girl's journey from innocence to adulthood. A village girl's dreams of marriage end on the death of her father. Cast on the mercy of relatives in fabled Isfahan, she and her mother are reduced to servitude until she reveals a talent for designing carpets - an invaluable skill. Hope is short-lived, for a disastrous, headstrong act results in the girl's disgrace. Caught between forces she can barely comprehend, she faces a life lived at the whim of others - unless she is prepared to risk everything and choose a future based on her own strength and will. THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS tells an unforgettable story: a tale of sensuality, of the treachery of friendship, of the power of love, and of the fragile possibility of finding happiness against all odds.
Review
'I've just read the most wonderful book by Anita Amirezzvani... it is fascinating, totally original and utterly gripping. It will remain one of my favourite books' -- Esther Freud, Independent on Sunday 'Sensuous and transporting...filled with the colours, tastes and fragrances of life in seventeenth-century Isfahan' -- Geraldine Brooks 'Amirrezvani... infuses her heroine with lilting eloquence' -- Washington Post 'Beautifully imagined... Simply a stunning debut' -- San Francisco Chronicle 'Lushly written, sensual' -- Australian Women's Weekly