From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Crowther's debut novel paints a vivid double portrait of a spirited mother-daughter pair, first- and second-generation immigrants to England from Iran whose relationship grows turbulent when shadows from the mother's past begin to overwhelm her. This beautifully produced reading starts with the bright voice of Ariana Fraval as Sara, the daughter, but it is soon overtaken by the darker, melodically accented tones of Mehr Mansuri as Maryam, Sara's mother. Maryam returns to the tiny village where she grew up to come to terms with her past, especially with the ghost of her father and with her first love, Ali, who has been waiting for her return. As Maryam journeys through Iran and back into her memories, and then induces Sara to come too, Mansuri's voice takes on myriad emotional shades, from wonder and delight to sharp regret and painful uncertainty. Intervals of Persian-inflected music helps set an exotic yet contemplative mood. Fraval and Mansuri's authentic pronunciation of the occasional foreign words allows listeners to be swept up by Crowther's lovely, haunting story even more easily than when reading it for themselves.
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From AudioFile
"When I humiliated my father, he humiliated me. It made me strong," Maryam tells her daughter in Crowther's first novel. The author and her daughter, who narrates half of this work, share an Iranian-British heritage. Together author and narrators lead listeners into a world difficult for a child to understand. Using dual narrators works well. Mehr Mansuri adopts a deep, flat tone for Maryam, who accepts whatever must happen next. In Ariana Fraval's voice we hear the excitement, fear, and confusion of a young person. This is a woman's story of living in a man's world--of breasts bound to keep a child young, of living with second and third wives, of pregnancy, and of violation. These might be strange customs from half-a-world away, but the voices are strangely familiar. R.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
