'Caspian rain' adds to shower of books on Iran

While Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sparked plenty of verbal fireworks on his visit to New York, an explosion of interest in books about Iran generally has been taking place.

Gina B Nahai is an Iranian Jewish author whose latest novel, Caspian Rain, is here reviewed in the San Jose Mercury News:

"Why do some have the ability to overcome loss, while others pass the sorrow down to their children, like blue eyes or a bad temper? In her fourth novel, "Caspian Rain," Gina B. Nahai demonstrates that suffering is a cultural imprint; that people, particularly in the East, don't make lemonade from lemons. Rather, they carry a ton of lemons on their hearts and shoulders for generations.

"In this case, the bearer of suffering is Yaas, a 12-year-old Jewish girl growing up in pre-revolutionary Iran. Her father, Omid, a well-bred socialite, mingles with Tehran's Muslims. He wanted an easy marriage, so he chose Bahar, a teenager from the Jewish ghetto who dreams of American movie stars. Yaas suffers not only from her parents' loveless marriage, but from a genetic illness that is robbing her of her hearing."

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