The Heart's Desire

by Nahid Rachlin

Overview

Jennifer Sahary, an American artist, and her husband Karim, a professor and Iranian immigrant, make an extended visit to Teheran shortly after the Iran-Iraq War, encountering unforeseen dangers and sexual temptations that change the course of their lives.

When their young son is taken by his grandmother to the holy city of Qom without Jennifer’s knowledge, she sets out to find him, learning much about Iran and about herself along the way. And as Karim renews contact with his family and surveys the misery and needs of his war-torn country, he begins to question where he can best achieve his ideals.

In sensuous and elegant prose, Rachlin weaves the interlinking stories of a man and a woman and their contrasting cultures with balance and sympathy.

"One can learn a lot from this novel . . ."-- Publishers Weekly

Nahid Rachlin is an Iranian who lives in New York City, where she teaches creative writing at Barnard College. She is author of Veils: Short Stories and Married to a Stranger (both published by City Lights) and Foreigner (W. W. Norton). She teaches at the New School University and the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780872868892
Publisher:	City Lights Books
Publication date:	10/20/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Nahid Rachlin is the Iranian-American author of four novels, short stories, and essays. She teaches at New School University and the Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y, New York City.

What People are Saying About This

Frederick Busch

Mahid Rachlin has written an intimate family study that is, simultaneously, an exploration of cultures, nations, worlds. The willingness to be vulnerable to such powerful feeling, and her ability to pass it along to us, makes The Heart's Desire a profoundly moving experience.

Editorial Reviews

Rachlin (Veils) tries not to judge anyone in this story of an American woman married to an Iranian mantact that may be admirable in life but that makes for a somewhat bland novel. Artist Jennifer and professor Karim leave their comfortable home in Athens, Ohio, with their six-year-old son, Darius, to visit Karim's family shortly after the end of the Iran-Iraq war. An accomplished Farsi speaker, Jennifer remains intrigued by Teheran on her second visit but finds it much changed, with an anti-Americanism that makes her uncomfortable. At the same time, Karim's recollections of growing anti-Iranian feeling in the United States are weighing on him. Jennifer's and Karim's relationship has been strained of late anyway, as after 12 years together, he seems to be rediscovering his ethnicity. While in Iran he gets word that his department head back home has given away one of his courses, and he begins to toy with the idea of remaining in Iran. Trouble erupts when Karim leaves on a short trip with his uncle and Karim's mother kidnaps Darius in order to enroll him in religious school. One can learn a lot from this novel, but while these observations are interesting, many (particularly on Jennifer's part) have the feel of pedagogical exposition rather than narrative necessity. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly