Synopses & Reviews
Identical twins Ruzbeh and Behruz are at the center of Ali Hosseinis debut novel in English--a story about love, redemption, and the courage to survive in the face of calamity and loss. The novel begins in the small town in southern Iran where the boys were raised and in their summer home which is surrounded by a lemon grove. Their idyll is shattered by personal and geopolitical events. Both boys fall in love with Shireen, a childhood friend. Behruz goes to America to escape the pain of competing for Shireen's affections. Ruzbeh fights in the Iran/Iraq war and ends up alone and wandering the streets. When Behruz returns to Iran to help his shell-shocked brother, he finds the country devastated by revolution and war. His return sets off a string of events that change all their lives.
Review
"Ali Hosseini takes us to vivid places in the landscape and heart of a contemporary Iran sorely missing from the news bites; weaves a masterful tale of Persia's many subcultures caught in a changing climate of intolerance and of one man's agony, remorse, redemption--a story of love lost and found."
--Paul L. Bates, author of Imprint and Dreamer
Review
"[The Lemon Grove] is very polished, the characters believably real, and the story evocative."
--Robert Bonazzi
Review
"The new Kite Runner . . . It does for Iran what Khaled Hosseinis best seller did for Afghanistan." —Marie Claire
Synopsis
Identical twins Ruzbeh and Behruz are at the center of Ali Hosseinis debut novel in English--a story about love, redemption, and the courage to survive in the face of calamity and loss. The novel begins in the small town in southern Iran where the boys were raised and in their summer home which is surrounded by a lemon grove.
About the Author
Ali Hosseini is an Iranian American who came to the United States as a student in the seventies. He has published a novel and two short story collections in Iran, and his short fiction has been published in Persian in the United States in Par Monthly and Persian Book Review. His work in English has been published in Epoch, Fiction International, American Letters & Commentary, Puerto del Sol, Ararat, and Hawai‘i Review. He lives in the Boston area.