The Persian Bride: A Novel
by James Buchan
On This Page
Description
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 show more 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. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Written as lyrically as classsical persian poetry. Within these pages is a pathway that allows the reader to meander through Isfahan. My favorite book, ever. Because it literally brought the place of my childhood back to me. A wonderful love story, a lesson in history and politics, and a beautiful picture of Iran.
in the spirit of The English Patient: enigmatic narration, rich with historical/regional political content
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
16+ Works 1,207 Members
James Buchan studied Persian & Arabic in Iran in the 1970s & was for ten years a foreign correspondent for the "Financial Times." His novels have won major literary prizes in Britain, including the Whitbread First Novel Award & the Guardian Fiction Prize, & have been translated into eight languages. He lives in Norfolk, England. (Bowker Author show more Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- A Good Place to Die
- Alternate titles
- The Persian Bride (US title) (US title)
- People/Characters
- John Pitt; Shirin Farameh
- Important places
- Isfahan, Iran; Iran
- Disambiguation notice
- "A Good Place to Die" and "The Persian Bride" are the same novel. GPD is the UK title, and PB is the US title.
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 171
- Popularity
- 190,882
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.56)
- Languages
- English, French, Portuguese
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- UPCs
- 2
- ASINs
- 2
