Mt. Diablo Branch
proudly welcomes acclaimed Bay Area author
ANITA AmirrezvanI
LEARN THE SECRETS OF GREAT HISTORICAL FICTION:
RESEARCH, WRITING, PUBLICATION AND PROMOTION
Born in Tehran, Iran, writer and editor Anita Amirrezvani grew up in San Francisco. Since the age of 13 she has often visited her native country. She attended Vassar College for two and a half years before transferring to UC Berkeley, where she majored in English. Before selling her amazing first novel novel, THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS, Anita worked for ten years as a dance critic and arts writer at two newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as an arts publicist.
THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS has received critical and popular acclaim in the United States and created a stir around the world, generating an auction for publishing rights in twenty-three countries and territories.
“Amirrezvani skillfully threads culture, romance, and art into an elegant tale of self-realization and empowerment.” — Entertainment Weekly
“THE BLOOD OF FLOWERS isn’t just any novel…Luxuriant language weaves together characters that 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
#1 Book Sense Pick, June 2007
In seventeenth-century Iran, a young girl yearns for her wedding day and anticipates the wisdom and maturity that will come with it. But her luck is about to change for the worse, as the unexpected death of her father leaves her and her mother to fend for themselves in a tough and often cruel world. With nowhere to go and no means to support themselves, they have no choice but to plead for the assistance of long-lost family, the stern but caring rug designer Gostaham and his miserly wife, Gordiyeh. The rash and strong-willed young girl begins to learn the art of making rugs — from choosing the vibrant colors and balancing the intricate elements of design to perfecting her knot sizes and the hard bargaining that will ensure her survival. But when she catches the eye of the son of a wealthy horse trader, she is contracted into a short-term marriage known as a sigheh, which threatens to ruin her reputation and, thus, her future.
Visit Anita Amirrezvani on the web at www.bloodofflowers.com.
Photo Credit (above): Mark Estes