Revue de presse 'Sensuous and transporting...filled with the colors, tastes and fragrances of life in 17th century Isfahan. Amirrezvani clearly knows and loves the ways of old Iran, and brings them to life with the cadences of a skilled story-spinner' (Geraldine Brooks)'Richly coloured glimpses of Isfahan society... A lavishly detailed debut' (Kirkus Reviews)'Lushly written, sensual' (Australian Women's Weekly)'Beautifully imagined... Simply a stunning debut. One can't help but want to return to the charming main narrator and the entrancing tale of her quest for independence and self-reliance, her daring and honest exploration of love and desire for love, and above all the profound discovery... that she 'must being to understand her own worth'" (San Francisco Chronicle)'[Amirrezvani's] storytelling has an intoxicating quality' (Australian Vogue)'Haunting' (Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin, Australia)'I've just read the most wonderful book by Anita Amirezzvani...it is fascinating, totally original and utterly gripping. It will remain one of my favourite books.' (Esther Freud)'Powerful and haunting' (Image, Australia)'...a staggeringly well-written novel' (Sun Herald, Australia) Présentation de l'éditeur Set in seventeenth-century Iran, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS is the powerful and haunting story of a young girl's journey from innocence to adulthood.The novel begins in the 1620s in a remote village where the narrator (whose name, in the Iranian storytelling tradition, we are never to know) lives with her mother and rug-maker father. On the sudden death of her father our heroine and her mother fall upon hard times and are forced to travel to the bustling, beautiful, exotic city of Isfahan where relatives take them in. Everything is new: the grudging charity of her aunt, the encouragement of her uncle, one of the finest carpet-makers in the world, who begins to teach her his craft, the treacherous friendship of the daughter of rich neighbours. And there's an adventure ahead which will introduce her to the sensual side of life as well as to the cruelty of betrayal and rejection before she finds her way to contentment and possibly, even, to happiness, in a world full of contrasts and dangers. Biographie de l'auteur Anita Amirrezvani was born in Iran but has lived in the USA since she was a young child. She has visited Iran many times and has been steeped in tales of Iranian life and history from an early age. The Blood of Flowers was her first novel, and was followed by Equal of the Sun. USA Today described The Blood of Flowers as 'filled with intricate designs, vivid colours, and sparkling gems'; it has appeared in more than 25 languages and was long-listed for the 2008 Orange Prize for Fiction. Anita is an adjunct professor at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and at Sonoma State University. www.anitaamirrezvani.com
