The Girl from the Garden audiobook

“The Girl from the Garden” is a story of a wealthy Persian Jewish family living in Iran at the beginning of the 20th Century. It’s more of an account of women’s cultural plight at that time. Although these women were fed well and surrounded by monetary beauty, their lives were ones of male servitude and oppression. Only the conniving seemed to survive.The author, Parnaz Foroutan, uses her own family’s folklore as fodder for this beautifully written novel. Foroutan stated that as her family members aged, the family stories changed. She won’t call this historical fiction as the sources became unreliable. This reader is appreciative that she chose to use the folklore, in whatever state of truth, in fiction. It made a fine novel.The story is told as memories of the family’s only surviving daughter, Mahboubeh. She is living in Los Angeles, ruminating over her mother, who died when she was a mere child. No family member would explain explicitly how her mother died; her father would only state that it was “from the complications of womanhood.” After reading the novel, that statement had a different meaning for me. The novel has complicated names that started to trip me up at the beginning, but I got the flow and after about 20 pages and found the names easily remembered. Because Mahboubeh is elderly, her ruminations ebb and flow through current life. It took me a bit to understand that flow. As a result, this is a novel that does take careful reading. Warning: don’t read while tired! I highly recommend this novel because Foroutan’s writing is beautiful, and the story captures a time and place in history that is incredibly interesting.

The Girl From Garden is the debut masterpiece from Parnaz Faroutan and another one added to my favourite reads this year. It is a powerful tale of desire, obsession, jealousy, power and vulnerability and ultimately the downfall of a wealthy Persian-Jewish family set in the early twentieth century.Mahboubeh, the only surviving daughter of the Malacouti family, is an elderly woman who spends her time tending and talking to the plants in her garden. Mahboubeh drifts in and out of the past reliving her memories as a young girl in Iran and it is through her that we hear about a young married couple who are unable to produce an heir to ensure the continuation of the family line; and we bear witness to the tragic events and destructive forces that destroyed the family.When Asher Malacouti's young wife fails to produce an heir and his brother's new wife becomes pregnant he decides on a course of action that will have disastrous consequences. The disdain and resentment that Asher displays toward his wife, Rakhel, will distort and shape her into a manipulative, vindictive woman. Rakhel will go to any extremes to maintain her status within the family including the use of spells and help of djinns in this highly superstitious, spirit believing culture.In a male dominated and strict boundary controlled environment the young women jostle with one another in a struggle to reach the most beneficial status within the unit, sacrificing any chance of true friendship or bond, and is where betrayal, and manipulation are the unending driving force.The Girl From The Garden is all the more poignant as life for young girls is pretty much the same today as it was then. Little or no alternative exists than to be married very young to produce children, and look after their husband and family, often in oppressive and restrictive marriages, as is the case for Rakhel.The Girl From The Garden is a beautifully written piece of literature. Vividly depicting a world rich in detail with beautifully drawn characters who effortlessly come to life and lodge themselves into your mind.I highly recommend The Girl from the Garden to anyone interested in learning about lives from a different time and culture and would generate lively discussion in book reading groups.

A kalidescope of emotions....envy, jealousy, sorrow....all set in a wealthy Jewish families home. ...it did take me a moment to get into the ebb and flow of the book going back and forth between the recollections of Mahboubeh and what happened in the past....

I think heartbreaking sums this one up pretty well. It's a beautifully written tale about a Jewish family in Iran. But it is universal in that it addresses the plight of a barren woman and the effect it has on her family. It's a very special read. It goes back and forth in time which can be a little confusing, but I think it is a successful mechanism for storytelling, which is really what the book is.

An interesting peak into the lives of Iranian Jews from generations past - a time when a woman's worth was measured by her ability to bear children. The story is told in memories and flashbacks, narrated by the only surviving daughter of a prosperous family, now an old woman living in Los Angeles. The details and descriptions allowed me to step between the pages of the book and imagine what life was really like for a woman in that time and place. It's a story of tragedy, despair, betrayal and sacrifice. I look forward to future books by this author.

This is a first novel for writer Parnaz Foroutan and she knocks it out of the park! A Jewish Iranian family's tragic history is told through the ancient eyes of Mahboubeh, the sole surviving daughter, who now lives in California. This is not a happy story but one that is fraught with such sadness, tragedy and loneliness that it leaves you aching at the end. The saving grace is the beautifully detailed writing. Parzaz paints a picture so clearly that you can almost smell and hear the goings on in the Malacouti family compound. Her writing, which is rich and her skill as a storyteller is what kept me turning page after page. I don't know why, but I had never considered what life must have been like for a Jewish family in early 20th century Iran. A haunting story that will stay with you long after you have finished it.

The Girl from the Garden by Parnaz Foroutan was a book that I enjoyed reading very much. It was about a Persian Jewish family living in Iran early in the twentieth century. Told through the memories and thoughts of Mahboubeh,the only remaining relative of Asher Malacouti, a wealthy Jewish man, and his family. The themes of jealously, power and obsession run throughout the book. It was well written and I look forward to reading more books by this author.

A spectacular novel - portrait of loss, longing, and passion in the intimate lives of an extended family in Iran. Foroutan is a writer of remarkable talent, haunting yet suspensful and her tale is moving and unforgettable.

Loved the story

An amazing, lushly written novel.

I had not heard anything about this book and picked it up on a whim and I'm so glad I did! It is a beautiful and lushly written story set in two times, present day American (very little) and early twentieth-century Iran (where most of the book takes place). The story is told through the "flashbacks" of Mahboubeh, a woman in the present who is wrestling with the ghosts of her family history. It is a heart wrenching story that truly shows the "complications of womanhood" in that time when a woman did not belong to herself but to her husband and if she could not produce and heir, she was nothing. The flashbacks do flow seamlessly in and out of Mahboubeh's present day thoughts but I didn't really have any trouble following that. The writing is so rich and really does transport you to another place and time. I woud love to read more from ParnazForoutan."She closes her eyes and remembers when the women gathered, even to celebrate the little things. In hope of dispelling the monotony of their days. They came together for the plucking of a bride's eyebrows, the sixth night of a daughter's birth, the first meal of a baby, the spilt blood after the first night of being a wife. And they gathered to celebrate the holy days, too, and for the preparation of feasts for those sanctified days, and for Sabbath dinners. And sometimes, they entered each others homes just to bring news, to share the joy or spread the shame, to help with an ailing mother, to mourn, to console, to counsel, to tell stories, to eavesdrop, to bring a talisman against miscarriage, a remedy to win back a straying husband, to bring news about the misconduct of potential brides, to return borrowed china, to apologize, to pray, to forgive."

Beautiful imageryBased on the recommendation of Rachel Schwartz, I picked up this book and began reading it. I was lost in the imagery of the scenes. I cared about the protagonist of the novel, Rakhel. My heart went to her for her pain and sufferings. The idea that bearing a child is purely the key to a person's worth in a society is painful at best and harmful at worst. I loved the usage of Farsi words through out the book. The Farsi words were peppered and they did not interfere with the understanding of the context even if you have never heard of the language. Mrs. Foroutan has done a marvelous job. Cannot wait to read more works by her.

Wow. So the narrator is an old woman, who is forgetting the past, and in this state of mind, she is trying to recreate a story to find out how her mother died. This author manages to create this sense of disorientation of identity, time and space so magnificently. The author intentionally sets out to create the same confusion in the reader that the narrator experiences, as the story progresses and as the old woman's capacity to identify temporal reality deteriorates. What a brilliant idea for structure. And what a story. I'm speechless.

It took a while for the story to get going, but once it did it was very good. The tagline ("She died from complications of womanhood") ending up being more powerful and touching than I could have imagined at first.

A Beautiful and Haunting NovelI was impressed by the lovely prose and the intriguing family history. I liked how the author weaved the story from the present to the past. It was a fascinating view of a different culture and time.

Delicate, gorgeous writing. Beautiful story of Persian Jewish family when women were chattal, only valuable for making babies

I listened to the unabridged 7-hour audio version of this title (read by Lameece Issaq, Harper Audio, 2015). There are actually two girls, not one: A contemporary woman, Mahboubeh, who lives in California, and an aunt, Rakhel, a child bride of the wealthy Malacouti family, who lived in a Jewish community in the city of Kermanshah, western Iran, in mid-20th century. Part of the storyline is a competition between the childless Rakhel and Mahboubeh's mother, Khorsheed, who produces an heir, a vital need of a prosperous patriarchal family.The author captures well the lives of women as meal-preparing/baby-making machines in traditional male-dominated Iranian society and their bravery and self-actualization under extreme patriarchy. The writing is beautiful and poetic, showing how oppressed women created little joys for themselves in a joyless environment, where women harbor suicidal thoughts for not being able to satisfy an heir-obsessed traditional family.In addition to how women were oppressed in Iran some seven decades ago, many of them suffering or even dying "from the complications of womanhood," we also learn about social and religious traditions of Jewish Iranians and their highly-restricted and watchful community in a Muslim-majority country.This book is yet another example of the extraordinary talents of Iranian women authors, who, in the past couple of decades have provided us with a steady stream of fiction and non-fiction titles. Writing provides an outlet for these women's frustrations in being treated as second-class citizens, not only by men but also by traditional, elder women. As I write this review, a feminist revolution is afoot in Iran under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom." Iranian women are highly educated and serious contributors to literature and poetry, mostly in Persian, but, more recently, also in other languages, as well as to other art forms. Their writing, acting, painting, and other talents are being recognized internationally, to the chagrin of the ruling mullahs, their cronies, and other patriarchs.

This is a beautifully written, lyrical and lush. It's also about absolutely miserable people, caught up in the societal norms and gender politics of early 20th century Iran. It's not an easy read and it doesn't have a happy ending.