“Luxuriant language threads together characters who are genuine and robust, equally flawed and sympathetic, as if they really exist outside the page…The Blood of Flowers is simply a stunning debut.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Anita Amirrezvani has written a sensuous and transporting first novel filled with colors, tastes, and fragrances of life in seventeenth-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, Pulitzer prize-winning author of March
“Anyone who liked Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns will enjoy this tale, too…The Blood of Flowers
is filled with intricate designs, vivid colors and sparkling gems.”
—USA Today
“Amirrezvani skillfully threads culture, romance, and art into an elegant tale of self-realization and empowerment.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Fascinating, totally original and utterly gripping.”
—The Independent on Sunday, London
“A staggeringly well-written novel…Amirrezvani deserves all the dazzling cliches that a dust jacket can possibly accommodate.”
—Sydney Morning Herald
“The story of the plucky narrator’s rocky road toward independence is stirring and surprisingly erotic, as are the folktales narrated by her mother. The way these twin narrative strands eventually converge is especially satisfying.”
—Library Journal starred review
“Like the most prized Persian carpets, it all fits together.”
—Associated Press
“Stories-within-the-story and richly colored glimpses of Isfahan society, both high and low, as well as much detail on the business of designing and creating carpets, swell the pages of Amirrezvani’s novel…A lavishly detailed debut.”
—Kirkus Reviews
