FOREIGNER

Feri, an Iranian woman in her thirties, left Iran to study and work in the United States, where she married an American and settled down. Now, after fourteen years, she has returned to Iran to visit her family. Unexpectedly, she finds herself strangely pulled by the old culture, where she will confront as never before the question of where she belongs and how she wants to live.

"I am so impressed with Nahid Rachlin's style--its purity and sparseness and immediacy. In remarkable few words, she has managed to bring to life an entire small pocket of existence... a rare intimate look at Iranians who are poorer and less educated... I have read (this book) four times by now, and each time I have discovered new layers in it. The voice is cool and pure. Bleak is the right word, if you will understand that bleakness can have a startling beauty." -- Anne Tyler, NY Times Book Review

"Nahid Rachlin has an intimate insider's knowledge of present-day everyday Iran --of people and places, houses, streets, and families --and she writes of them with a clarity of perception and style that makes them instantly recognizable and even homely and familiar to the reader." -- Ruth Prawer Jhabvala