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Gina B. Nahai

Auteur van Het noodlotskind

5+ Werken 739 Leden 31 Besprekingen Favoriet van 3 leden

Over de Auteur

Gina B. Nahai has lived in Iran, Switzeland, and the United States. She is the author of the award-winning and internationally praised Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith. A frequent lecturer on Iranian-Jewish history and the topic of exile, she has studied the politics of Iran for the U.S. Department toon meer of Defense. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder

Werken van Gina B. Nahai

Het noodlotskind (1999) 313 exemplaren
Caspian Rain (2007) 174 exemplaren
Cry Of The Peacock (1991) 130 exemplaren
The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. (1612) 69 exemplaren
Sunday's Silence (2001) 53 exemplaren

Gerelateerde werken

Tehran Noir (2014) — Medewerker — 43 exemplaren
Tremors: New Fiction by Iranian American Writers (2013) — Medewerker — 10 exemplaren

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A bit of a disappointment. In Nahai's other novels that I've read she brought to life immensely interesting characters that I greatly enjoyed reading about. That was not the case in this novel, whose characters I felt estranged from and mostly uninterested in throughout.

The story is centered on Adam, the illegitimate child of an Appalachian snake handling preacher and a dirt poor mother. He is abandoned by both into an orphanage, and when he reaches adulthood he bitterly leaves his origins behind and becomes an international reporter. Much of the book is taken up with the backstory of Adam's family, drawing the brutal lives of his ancestors in coal mining Appalachia.

When Adam's father dies from a snake bite during a church service, Adam for some reason is compelled to abscond from his reporting post in Lebanon and return to Tennessee to angrily seek out who he thinks is his father's murderer. I had trouble accepting this basic premise to the story - that Adam, as described, someone who viewed human connections as a weakness and detested his childhood, would go to such lengths to return to "uncover the truth" of what happened when he accidentally learns of his absent father's death.

The woman who handed Adam's father the snake that killed him is called Blue, and she is of Kurdish Jewish origins. She is brought from Kurdistan to Tennessee to be the wife of a ghostly figure on the faculty of the University in Knoxville. Part of the book describes her family's life in the mountains of Iran and Iraq in a deeply tribal society. She and Adam have an instant attraction, both outsiders who've never felt as if they truly belonged where they are, despite all their efforts. In the end, Adam must decide whether he will save Blue from arrest and whether he can manage to place trust in another human being again.

Nahai's prose, as in her other novels, is really quite good. I like her a good deal as a writer. This particular story and these characters, unfortunately, I just never could find much imaginative sympathy with.
… (meer)
 
Gemarkeerd
lelandleslie | Feb 24, 2024 |
Here's what I wrote in 2008 about this read: "Another story for women, that of Jewish women in Persia --> Iran. Worth a re-read to better absorb some of the details and history."
 
Gemarkeerd
MGADMJK | Sep 28, 2022 |
Une sage - histoire -enquête - témoignage atypique, attachante et pertinente.
 
Gemarkeerd
Nikoz | 15 andere besprekingen | Aug 27, 2021 |
This is a very sad story but a very worthwhile read. It is a commentary on how a country's culture can affect the outcome of a person's life.
 
Gemarkeerd
srchern | 9 andere besprekingen | Feb 2, 2018 |

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Statistieken

Werken
5
Ook door
3
Leden
739
Populariteit
#34,365
Waardering
½ 3.7
Besprekingen
31
ISBNs
56
Talen
12
Favoriet
3

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