The Girl from the Garden

Starred review from July 13, 2015
Foroutan's richly layered debut explores the dark political maneuverings inside a single household in a Jewish enclave in Iran. When Rakhel marries Asher Malacouti, the most prosperous Jewish businessman in the town of Kermanshah, it seems like an ideal match. Asher is consumed with the need to have a male child to inherit the business, and Rakhel is desperate to conceive, but she appears to be barrenâa fact that becomes even more wrenching when her sister-in-law has little trouble getting pregnant. After several years, Asher takes the radical step of taking a second wife: his cousin's disgraced ex-wife, Kokab, whom he has lusted after for years. Rakhel resorts first to subtle manipulation and then to more drastic measures in order to retain her husband's attentions and keep her place in the household secure. Eventually, during the Iranian Revolution, she leaves for America. In present-day southern California, Rakhel's niece, Mahboubeh, now an old woman, attempts to find common ground with the bitter old woman she remembers from childhood. The framework of flashbacks within flashbacks (present-day Mahboubeh, Mahboubeh as a young girl, Rakhel as a young woman) can be difficult to navigate, but Rakhel's slow descent into darkness exhilaratingly propels the plot, and Foroutan's sumptuous prose paints a vivid portrait of a rarely explored historical and cultural setting.

March 1, 2015

Iranian-born Foroutan draws on family history to write this novel, which won her a PEN USA's Emerging Voices fellowship. Asher Malacouti heads up a thriving Jewish family in the Iranian town of Kermanshah but can't have the one thing he wants: a male heir. Even as his wife, Rakhel, grows increasingly bitter because she cannot conceive--in this society, the only measure of her worth--Asher makes a choice that drives Rakhel to extreme measures. The tale is told by an elderly woman, the family's one surviving daughter, from her home in Los Angeles. With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2015

In this debut novel, Mahboubeh Malacouti, an elderly woman living in Los Angeles, recalls the stories surrounding her family in early 1900s Iran. Through her memories, Mahboubeh brings to life her Uncle Asher, the wealthiest Jewish man in the town of Kermanshah, and his young, barren wife, Rakhel. As Mahboubeh describes Asher's obsession with having an heir, she begins to unravel the mysteries surrounding her mother's death and confronts the unsavory darkness beneath her uncle's exterior. Inspired by her own family history, Foroutan's fluid narrative successfully paints an immersive tale of the inner strength of women living in a time and within a culture when their personal thoughts and opinions were unwelcomed by men and meant to be kept to themselves. VERDICT Though Foroutan is better at writing about the past than the present (the portrait of modern-day Mahboubeh is sketchy and leaves much to be desired--perhaps another novel?), she clearly has a gift for storytelling. Readers who enjoyed Nadia Hashimi's The Pearl That Broke Its Shell and similar tales of young women overcoming personal obstacles will certainly appreciate. [See Prepub Alert, 2/9/15.]--Shirley Quan, Orange Cty. P.L., Santa Ana, CA

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 15, 2015
Reminiscing in her Los Angeles garden, an elderly woman pieces together the tragedy of her ancestors' Iranian Jewish household, in which the actions of two brothers "who would sacrifice anything for one another" result in sorrow for three wives.Foroutan's lyrical debut offers a mosaic of stories evoking life within a wealthy Jewish home in Kermanshah, Iran, in earlier times. Although Asher Malacouti has spun the money inherited from his father into a fortune, his success has only made his desperation for a son and heir all the more urgent. This is a world of deeply traditional roles, where a wife's security depends on her fertility, so as time passes and Asher's young wife, Rakhel, fails to conceive, tensions rise. Rakhel is forced to accept Asher's decision to take a second wife, Kokab, but it drives her into a terrible suicidal episode. Then Kokab-divorced by her first husband and forcibly separated from her daughter-fails to conceive, too. Through the ghostly voices of this unhappy home, with brothers Asher and Ibrahim at its center and the womenfolk circling them like satellites, the disastrous history is slowly reassembled. The repository of these stories is Mahboubeh Malacouti, Ibrahim's daughter, who left Iran in 1977 but who has memories of Rakhel, a harsh, vindictive woman, although none at all of her own mother. All Mahboubeh knows is what Ibrahim told her, that her mother "died from the complications of womanhood." Deftly structured, this novel traces those complications to their core, exposing the pain, oppressive forces, and difficult allegiances within and without the estate, while lending grace through the delicacy of its observation. There's little joy to be found in this tale of a doomed family, flavored with myth and fairy tale, yet the poetic narration overlays the suffering with surprising beauty.

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Starred review from June 1, 2015
After his father's death, Asher grew his holdings until the Malacoutis were the most prosperous family in their Iranian town. Now he longs for a son to continue the legacy, but his wife, Rakhel, has yet to conceive. Practically still a child herself, Rakhel knows that her worth depends on her ability to produce an heir, and she feels desperate in the face of her repeated failures. When her sister-in-law, Khorsheed, gives birth to the family's first scion, Rakhel sinks further into despair, growing increasingly resentful and withdrawn. Distracted by his desire for a son and a passionate longing for his cousin's beautiful wife, Kokab, Asher makes a decision that will alter the entire family's life and force Rakhel to take actions of her own to ensure her future. Their fateful tale is recounted by Khorsheed's daughter, Mahboubeh, now an elderly woman herself, left only with these memories of a family destroyed by passion and envy. In this stunning first novel, Foroutan draws on her own family history to integrate the lore and traditions of old Iran. Suspenseful and haunting, this riveting story of jealousy, sacrifice, and betrayal and the intimately drawn characters within will not be easily forgotten.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)