While eleven-year-old Nazie has long been engaged to her cousin Moussa and anxiously awaits her marriage, fifteen-year-old Flora has been abandoned by her husband in the midst of a difficult pregnancy. In a novel brimming with vitality and sensuality - smells, colours and textures float effortlessly off the page - Rabinyan examines the lives of these young Jewish girls in a Persian village at the beginning of the twentieth century. Persian Brides is a widely-acclaimed, vibrant and award-winning debut of immense emotional power.

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A vivid, evocative book that manages to portray the limitations and desperation of women's lives in early twentieth century Persia without being horrendously depressing.

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Although the writing is heavy handed and there isn't much of a plot per se, it was an interesting discovery if only to learn more about a different culture, albeit only in the past. Unfortunately most of interaction was negative, with characters constantly squabbling and humiliating each other. It left me wondering about the authors intentions as the book seemed to lead nowhere.

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