Synopses & Reviews
Hailed as a masterpiece in Britain, this epic novel is at once a great love story, a riveting political thriller, and a profound analysis of modern Iran.
It is the spring of 1974, and John Pitt, a young Englishman, sets off for the hippie East, stopping in Iran. There, in the lovely city of Isfahan, he meets the enchanting and spirited Shirin, an Iranian schoolgirl of seventeen. They fall desperately in love, marry in secret, and are forced into hiding. Shirin not only gives John happiness beyond anything he could have dreamed, she gives him her country's terrible history, its beauty and bitterness, its poetry and religious fanaticism. As the old world disintegrates in revolution and terror, John and Shirin are brutally separated. From the corrupt court of the shah to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, in an enduring human quest as old as THE ODYSSEY, John stumbles through history to find his wife.
James Buchan has lived in Iran and knows its people and its culture as few outsiders do. THE PERSIAN BRIDE is unflinching in its vision of twentieth-century chaos and deeply romantic in its marvelous love story. Lyrical and reflective in turn, this is a brilliant and beautiful novel.
Review
"The best novel of 1999."
Review
"Buchan's utterly transporting novel is part delightful romance, part journey into a harrowing political labryinth. . . A dazzling love story."
Review
"Buchan is a writer of noble obliquity. In describing everything, he gives nothing away."
Review
graceful, and big with truth, it feels like a major statement of
Review
confidence, not just by an English novelist but by the English novel. .
Review
.There is really no word for it but 'masterpiece.'" --The Spectator
Review
"A book of astonishing intellectual grandeur and integrity. . .Airy,
graceful, and big with truth, it feels like a major statement of
confidence, not just by an English novelist but by the English novel. .
.There is really no word for it but 'masterpiece.'" --The Spectator
Review
The best novel of 1999.”
Times Literary Supplement
"A book of astonishing intellectual grandeur and integrity. . .Airy, graceful, and big with truth, it feels like a major statement of confidence, not just by an English novelist but by the English novel. . .There is really no word for it but 'masterpiece.'" --The Spectator
"Buchan's utterly transporting novel is part delightful romance, part journey into a harrowing political labryinth. . . A dazzling love story." Entertainment Weekly
"Buchan is a writer of noble obliquity. In describing everything, he gives nothing away." Memphis Commercial Appeal
Synopsis
Hailed as a masterpiece in Britain, this epic novel is at once a great love story, a riveting political thriller, and a profound analysis of modern Iran.
It is the spring of 1974, and John Pitt, a young Englishman, sets off for the hippie East, stopping in Iran. There, in the lovely city of Isfahan, he meets the enchanting and spirited Shirin, an Iranian schoolgirl of seventeen. They fall desperately in love, marry in secret, and are forced into hiding. Shirin not only gives John happiness beyond anything he could have dreamed, she gives him her country's terrible history, its beauty and bitterness, its poetry and religious fanaticism. As the old world disintegrates in revolution and terror, John and Shirin are brutally separated. From the corrupt court of the shah to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan, in an enduring human quest as old as THE ODYSSEY, John stumbles through history to find his wife.
James Buchan has lived in Iran and knows its people and its culture as few outsiders do. THE PERSIAN BRIDE is unflinching in its vision of twentieth-century chaos and deeply romantic in its marvelous love story. Lyrical and reflective in turn, this is a brilliant and beautiful novel.
Synopsis
At once a great love story, a riveting political thriller, and a profound analysis of modern Iran, THE PERSIAN BRIDE is unflinching in its vision of twentieth-century chaos. In 1974, the young Englishman John Pitt follows the hippie trail to Isfahan, where he encounters the enchanting Shirin Farameh. These two young people fall desperately in love and marry, despite their cultural differences and the political upheaval surrounding them. When they are tragically separated, John sets off in search of his wife on a nightmare journey that takes him from the corrupt court of the shah to the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
About the Author
James Buchan studied Persian and Arabic in Iran in the 1970's and was for ten years a foreign correspondent for the London Financial Times. His novels have won major literary prizes in Britain, including the Whitbread First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize, and have been translated into eight languages. He lives with his wife and three children on a farm in Norfolk, England.