Gina B. Nahai

gina.nahai@gmail.com www.ginabnahai.com

Education

University of Southern California, Master of Professional Writing, 1988. Worked with Hubert Selby Junior, John Rechy.

University of California, Los Angeles, MA, Political Science: International Relations, 1982. Worked with Arthur Stein, Steven Spiegel.

University of California, Los Angeles, BA, Political Science, 1981.

Professional Appointments--Teaching

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)

Book Publications

The Luminous Heart of Jonah S., Novel, Akashic, October 2014

Caspian Rain, Novel, MacAdam/Cage, 2007

Sunday’s Silence, Novel, Harcourt, 2001

Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, Novel, Harcourt, 1999

Cry of the Peacock, Novel, Crown, 1992

Essays/Chapters in Anthologies

Upcoming in 2015-“Mizrahi Life in America”, The Journal of the Casden Institute, 2015

“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

“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 perfor-mances, 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; 92nd Street Y, Kaufman Concert Hall.

Honors and Awards

Long listed for the Dublin International Literary Award for 2016 Finalist, National Jewish Book Award, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S., 2014 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, 2007Caspian Rain selected as “One of the Best Books of the Year,” San Francisco Chronicle, December, 2007Finalist, 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

Languages

Fluent in French, Spanish, Persian

Teaching

New Courses Developed

Writer’s Marketplace, designed to educate students in the business aspect of publishing.

Oral History: Witness and Writing, designed to train writers of all disciplines (fiction, non- fiction, screen and television writing) in development of Character, Conflict, and Plot. A unique aspect of this class is the use of the archives of the Shoah Institute.

Fiction Workshop, the Novel, designed to help novelists conceive, develop, outline, and create a full-length novel.

Course Continuity in a Crisis, designed to allow classes to be held remotely during and after an emergency.

Courses Taught

Fiction Workshop Fiction Workshop, the Novel Writer’s Marketplace (formerly entitled Literary Marketplace) Literature and Approaches to Writing the Novel Oral History, Witness and Writing Literature and Approaches to Writing the Novel

Teaching Innovations and Multi-Media Teaching

Fellowship from USC’s Shoah Foundation Institute, “for incorporating the study of the center’s video archives,through video and distance learning technology, into a course cur-riculum.” Summer, 2013

C3 Grant, sponsored by the Office of the Provost, “to pilot various types of assignments and technologies, and to assess their effectiveness in supporting learning on an emergency basis and as a temporary replacement for face-to-face teaching.” Spring, 2013.

Learning Environments grant from USC’s Center for Scholarly Technology, to “encourage the adoption of mobile computing technology and instructional strategies that leverage the new features of these renovated spaces.” Fall, 2013

Thesis Advisement for Credit

Between Summer 2008, and Spring 2014 I advised 45 students in Directed Research or Thesis Project.

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 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

Upcoming in 2015 July 16-The Gathering, Keystone College May 22-University Synagogue, LA April 13-Wellesley College April 11-Literary Orange, Orange County, CAMarch 19-Palisades Library February 19-Sinai Temple, Los Angeles Jan-uary 14-Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills Jan-uary 15-Newport Beach Library

2014 November 18-Literary Affairs November 16-San Diego Jewish Book Fair November 10-Stephen S. Wise Temple No-vember 5-New York Public Library No-vember 4-Temple Israel of Great Neck No-vember 2-30Years After conference No-vember 1-Westwood Library October 23-Writer’s Bloc

October 21-National Women’s Book Association 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 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 Octo-ber 10—30 Years After Civic Action Conference No-vember 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 Cente-nary 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 Next-book—Los Angeles 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

Media Coverage

Television

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 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 As-sets 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 WCBM Radio, Maggie Pascal Show WTBQ Radio, Morning Show WABE Radio, NPR, Between the Lines KUCI, NPR, Writers on Writing

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 in Translation

Caspian Rain Italy / RH Mondadori Greece / Livanis Brazil / Geracao Germany / Marebuch Serbia / Mono & Manana Israel / Ofarim Spain / El Anden

Czech Republic / Euromedia Slovak Republic / Ikar Poland / KsiaznicaDenmark / As-chehoug 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; Ger-many/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

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

THE LUMINOUS HEART OF JONAH S.

“Lyrical, shrewd, and daring novelist Nahai . . . writes with acute emotional and nearly an-thropological perception, laser-wit, and deep compassion. . . . With touches of magic real-ism, extraordinary characters, and a spiraling, multigenerational plot involving fraud, a murder mystery, epic suffering, heroic generosity, women’s struggle for freedom, and the clash between East and West, Nahai’s mythic, tragic, often beautiful immigrant family saga illuminates timeless questions of prejudice, trauma, inheritance, loyalty, and love.” —Booklist, Starred review

“A riveting tale. . . . Readers will be well rewarded.” —Publishers Weekly, Starred review

“A wide-ranging, page-turning, magical realist, multigenerational family saga and Iran-ian-Jewish-American immigration tale enveloped in a murder mystery . . . it both enter-tains and instructs, and its differing genres seem more complimentary than conflicting.” —New York Journal of Books

“Nahai has crafted an engaging combination of family saga and murder mystery, placed it in the framework of a relatively unknown subculture, and people it with fascinating characters. Flavored with both elements of magical realism and down-to-earth observations, The Lumi-nous Heart of Jonah S. brings a little-known Los Angeles community to vivid life.” —Shelf Awareness

“What results is a novel that feels more universal than anything, and an engrossing, expansive epic that charts not only thousands years of Iranian Jewish life, but the bru-tality of one family’s survival amidst revolution and cultural upheaval.” —Kirkus Reviews, Feature on Gina B. Nahai

“One of the many pleasures of this sprawling, multigenerational story is the way it transcends the specifics of the Iranian diaspora with insights that could apply to any-one.”—LA Weekly

“One of Nahai’s gifts is her astute observation of this community, her own, which she describes with unsparing precision.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Nahai’s eye for detail, whether it’s succinctly summing up a funeral or providing a description of a Tehran summer, always seems to be spot on.”—PopMatters

“An intriguing murder-mystery journey anchored within the Iranian-Jewish communi-ty of Los Angeles. Vivid and raw . . . Nahai masterfully introduces us to the mythical and mundane layers that make up Iranian-American identity.”—Washington Indepen-dent Review of Books

“It’s the family connections—the true Iranian heritage—that is the luminous heart of the novel.”—The Reporter Group

“This is irresistible storytelling . . . Nahai uses her estimable gifts to offer a nuanced, sometimes satirical portrait of the tight-knit Iranian-Jewish exile community in Los Angeles . . . It’s a fascinating read.”—BookPage

“Nahai has crafted a story that will move you with its exploration of the bonds that tie a family together or tear it asunder.”—San Diego Jewish Journal

“[Nahai’s] novel has an intoxicating and driving rhythm that pulls you right in . . . [a] beautiful book.”—Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles

“A sprawling and unlikely combination of Dickens, Gabriel García Márquez and Raymond Chandler, sweeping in the super-rich and the struggles of both Tehran and Los Angeles.”—The National (UAE)

“Simultaneously ironic, dramatic, and witty.”—BBC, Ten Books to Read in October

“An energetically inventive epic . . . Nahai’s boisterous, sardonic, sometimes-lurid portrait of a community and the devil in its midst offers unusual, engrossing story-telling.”—Kirkus Reviews

One of Jewish Journal‘s Noteworthy Books for the New Year

One of Jewish Woman Magazine‘s 8 Great Fall Reads

One of Publishers Weekly‘s Big Indie Books of Fall 2014

One of Library Journal‘s 25 Key Indie Fiction Titles for Fall 2014–Winter 2015

“Orange Prize and IMPAC Award finalist Nahai (Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith) re-turns after seven years with a distinctive look at Iranian Jewish life in America, featuring a Los Angeles–based family hounded for decades by an unprincipled financier from their own community. His disappearance upends everything.” —Library Journal Prepub Alert, “25 Key Indie Fiction Titles, Fall 2014–Winter 2015″

Included in Library Journal‘s Books That Buzzed at BEA Roundup, the first word on titles and trends from Barbara Hoffert, Editor

“With The Luminous Heart of Jonah S., Orange Prize and IMPAC Award finalist Gina B. Nahai returns after seven years with another novel of bristly beauty, offering a distinctive look at Iranian Jewish life in America.” —Library Journal, Books for the Masses/Editors’ Picks BEA 2014

“Gina B. Nahai has written a brilliant, funny, poignant, and thrilling novel about an Iranian Jewish family’s struggle to find its identity in exile in America. Part murder mystery, part comic novel, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. is a book you will not be able to put down.” —Reza Aslan, author of Zealot and No god but God

“Gina B. Nahai uses her gift for storytelling to add to the pantheon of American immigrant tales, but this time with an Iranian Jewish twist. This novel not only entertains, but asks the bigger question: do immigrants reinvent themselves in America or simply live out their destinies?” —Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi

“Gina B. Nahai has given us a remarkable new work—part murder mystery, part lyrical novel, part sociological study of Iranian Jewish culture between Tehran and LA. Her sec-tions on old Jewish Iran are simply transcendent; her insights into the Iranian exile culture in California, its excesses and vulnerabilities, are fascinating to read. Nahai brings a mystical touch to whatever she describes, reminding us of the magic—and at times dark and terrify-ing forces—of this world that so many were forced to leave behind, but continued to carry within them even decades later and thousands of miles away in America. Bravo.” —Lucette Lagnado, author of The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit and The Arrogant Years

“Equal parts Gabriel García Márquez, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Persian Bonfire of the Vanities, this is Gina B. Nahai’s breakout book, a quantum leap forward in ambition, humor, and scope that’s sure to win her legions of new fans and catapult her onto ‘Best Book of the Year’ and award short lists. Set in 1950s–’90s Tehran and LA, and gleefully skewering the excesses of both, Nahai’s assured, masterly voice sweeps the reader in with its page-turning

murder plot, but it’s her colorful characters—who are by turns diabolical, hilarious, poignant, scheming, vengeful, tragic, and lovelorn—who form this book’s pulsing, exuber-ant heart.” —Denise Hamilton, author of Damage Control

“Gina B. Nahai’s new novel is a boisterous, sometimes hilarious look at a community rarely seen in America. The Iranian Jewish families here fight for the same thing we all fight for—recognition and, of course, love.” —Susan Straight, author of Between Heaven and Here

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." -- Frank-furter 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, dam-aged. 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 tor-ture 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. Amer-ican 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

“…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 unful-filled 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 fin-ish…Her unusual yet effective narrative flow portrays this world in a way that leaves be-hind 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 cul-tural imprint…Perhaps Nahai’s intention is best illuminated by the naming of her charac-ters. 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 in-evitability 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 frus-tration. Beneath the novel’s calm and captivating prose is a powerful testament to Iranian women’s fight against oppression.” – Ms. Magazine

“…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.” – 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 si-lence.” 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 charac-ters…Caspian Rain is a moving mother-daughter story with a wealth of interesting charac-ters.” – 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”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 uni-versally 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 con-tinues 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 daugh-ter 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 bal-ancing 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 heart- wrenching examination of the tragedies of women caught in the net of gender, history, fami-ly 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 fascinat-ing, 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. Remark-ably, she allows to glimpse the hard realities of life in contemporary Iran in a new and unac-customed 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 supersti-tion 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 char-acters are as much in search of themselves as the turbulent nation they live in.” – Patt Mor-rison, 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 de-sire 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

“Exsquisite…Gina Nahai looks at snake-handling from the inside, and the cliché’s of Ap-palachia 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 under-stand a little better their powerful lure.” Los Angeles Times

“A bold, passionate tale of fanaticism and seduction. Sensitively and vividly rendered. Exot-ic, 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 sto-ry needs. Nahai lays her story of a strange folk and the enigma of charisma against a back-ground 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 al-luring. 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 in-terplay 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 psy-che 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 cel-ebrating. Nahai skillfully weaves the tangled separate stories of her characters, and shedoes 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 wor-shippers 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

“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 no-tion 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 themagic car-pet, 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 ‘Moon-light’. 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 Or-lando 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 realist tradi-tion, 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 in-forms 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 cap-tivates 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 spell-binding 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 danger-ous and unforgettable. I will never look at the Mideast quite the same again. Cry of the Pea-cock is an extremely important book, and fulfills one of the main tenets of reading: to learn and to understand.” Sun Sentinel, Florida

“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