"A rare, intimate look at Iranians. . . . I have read [this book] four times by now, and each time I have discovered new layers in it." â€”Anne Tyler, New York Times Book Review"Nahid Rachlin has an intimate insider's knowledge of present-day everyday Iran â€” of people and places, houses, streets, and families â€” 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." â€” Ruth Prawer Jhabvala "Rachlin's prose carefully understates and suggests her heroine's awakening to a pervasive atmosphere of menace and sensuality; residue of a culture she thinks she has abandoned, but which continues to claim her." â€” Bruce Allen, Chicago Tribune "Foreigner gently raises new as well as timeless questions about an unhappy woman's faith and freedom." â€” The New Yorker "Conveys the texture of extended family, the stress of modernization, the strain of Moslem rigidity as well as the harmony of nature, of dust and carpets, fruits, sweets, tea, fine rice and gossip. Always gossip." â€” Eden Lipson, "Special Edition," WNET/Thirteen

Foreigner

Rachlin, Nahid

Literature & Fiction

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

"A rare, intimate look at Iranians. . . . I have read [this book] four times by now, and each time I have discovered new layers in it." ―Anne Tyler, New York 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 "Rachlin's prose carefully understates and suggests her heroine's awakening to a pervasive atmosphere of menace and sensuality; residue of a culture she thinks she has abandoned, but which continues to claim her." ― Bruce Allen, Chicago Tribune "Foreigner gently raises new as well as timeless questions about an unhappy woman's faith and freedom." ― The New Yorker "Conveys the texture of extended family, the stress of modernization, the strain of Moslem rigidity as well as the harmony of nature, of dust and carpets, fruits, sweets, tea, fine rice and gossip. Always gossip." ― Eden Lipson, "Special Edition," WNET/Thirteen

Foreigner: A Novel

Women's Fiction

W.W.Norton&Company

Married to a Stranger

A woman's struggle for self-realization in contemporary Iran, a novel with "the clarity and spare sensuousness of Persian poetry or miniature painting."-Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
When Minou Hakini marries a man of her own choosingan intellectual and a radicaland moves to Abadan, a thriving oil town near the Iraqi border, she imagines her life will be adventurous and liberating. Before long, however, she becomes aware of her husband's suspicious liaisons and dangerous activities. Her struggle to forge her own identity as a woman in contemporary Iran is charged with passion, anger, and finally a need to escape.
The ecstasies and disillusionments of first love are the stuff of great tragedies and cheap romances, but Nahid Rachlin has done something else with this familiar theme, and something more, though her style is elegantly simple . . . ” The New York Times Book Review
". . .Rachlin (Foreigner) tells her story with economy and suspensefulness, weaving strands of unstable political life and sexual secrecy--in a small, vivid closeup of life in Iran at that fateful hour, within a society that had become its own prisoner." Kirkus Reviews
Nahid Rachlin is an Iranian-American who lives in New York and teaches at Barnard College. She is the author of Foreigner and The Heart's Desire, both novels, and Veils, a collection of short stories.

Literary

E.P. Dutton, Inc.

The ten stories in Veils take place in present-day Iran or in the United States where Iranian immigrants face alien ways. Teheran’s ancient Ghanat Abad Avenue, with its labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys, loosely links the stories into a single narrative: some residents leave as soon as they can, others can live nowhere else. The men and women in these spare and sensuous narratives who are caught in the confusing whirl of changing cultures sometimes meet with failure but more often transcend difficult circumstances to gain deeper self-knowledge.

Veils: Short Stories

United States

City Lights Publishers

A woman's struggle for self-realization in contemporary Iran, a novel with "the clarity and spare sensuousness of Persian poetry or miniature painting."—Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
When Minou Hakini marries a man of her own choosing—an intellectual and a radical—and moves to Abadan, a thriving oil town near the Iraqi border, she imagines her life will be adventurous and liberating. Before long, however, she becomes aware of her husband's suspicious liaisons and dangerous activities. Her struggle to forge her own identity as a woman in contemporary Iran is charged with passion, anger and finally a need to escape.
“The ecstasies and disillusionments of first love are the stuff of great tragedies and cheap romances, but Nahid Rachlin has done something else with this familiar theme, and something more, though her style is elegantly simple . . . ”—The New York Times Book Review
" . . . Rachlin (Foreigner) tells her story with economy and suspensefulness, weaving strands of unstable political life and sexual secrecy—in a small, vivid closeup of life in Iran at that fateful hour, within a society that had become its own prisoner."—Kirkus Reviews
Nahid Rachlin is an Iranian-American who lives in New York and teaches at Barnard College. She is the author of Foreigner and The Heart's Desire, both novels, and Veils, a collection of short stories.

Jennifer Sahary, an American artist, and her husband Karim, a professor and Iranian immigrant, make an extended visit to Teheran shortly after the Iran-Iraq war, encountering unforeseen dangers and sexual temptations that change the course of their lives.When their young son is taken by his grandmother to the holy city of Qom without Jennifer's knowledge, she sets out to find him, learning much about Iran, and about herself, along the way. And as Karim renews contact with his family and surveys the misery and needs of his war-torn country, he begins to question where he can best achieve his ideals.

The Heart's Desire

Jennifer Sahary, an American artist, and her husband Karim, a professor and Iranian immigrant, make an extended visit to Teheran shortly after the Iran-Iraq War, encountering unforeseen dangers and sexual temptations that change the course of their lives.
When their young son is taken by his grandmother to the holy city of Qom without Jennifer’s knowledge, she sets out to find him, learning much about Iran and about herself along the way. And as Karim renews contact with his family and surveys the misery and needs of his war-torn country, he begins to question where he can best achieve his ideals.
In sensuous and elegant prose, Rachlin weaves the interlinking stories of a man and a woman and their contrasting cultures with balance and sympathy.
"One can learn a lot from this novel . . ."-- Publishers Weekly
Nahid Rachlin is an Iranian who lives in New York City, where she teaches creative writing at Barnard College. She is author of Veils: Short Stories and Married to a Stranger (both published by City Lights) and Foreigner (W. W. Norton). She teaches at the New School University and the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York.

The Heart's Desire (Children of Poverty)

An Iranian family embroiled in Islamic revolution, the hostage crisis, incest and exile in America
Forced to flee the country with their parents as Khomeini rises to power, Nora and Jahan Ellahi rise to the challenge of anti-Iranian hostility in America. Breaking free from their intense attachment to each other, they explore new relationships to forge independent lives. The romantic artist Jahan ultimately returns to join the army to fight Iraq, while ambitious Nora finds a life of greater opportunity and personal freedom in the U.S.
“If, as Aristotle reminds us, we are our desire, then who are we if the object of our desire is forbidden? What becomes of us if we are born in one world yet long for another? These are just two of the complex and difficult questions Nahid Rachlin explores and ultimately illuminates in this brave, engrossing, and timely novel. I recommend it highly!”—Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and FogJumping Over Fire
"Complexities of Iranian culture, recent history, and current events create a vivid background for a moving and suspenseful story . . . wise and timely novel."—School Library Journal
"As always, Nahid's writing keeps you on the end of your seat and is filled with emotion . . . The story unfolds with surprise. What makes the book even more meaningful is that it is about a family of meager wealth rather than very affluent. It is a family, however, with complications that arise from their new homeland. Do they survive? That is for you to find out."—Persian Heritage Magazine
"Besides being 'page-turners', Rachlin's novels render, in abundance, the beauty and sensuousness of Persian culture."—New Letters 
Nahid Rachlin is the Iranian-American author of the novels Foreigner, The Heart’s Desire, Married to a Stranger and the short story collection Veils. She teaches at the New School University and the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York.

Jumping Over Fire

A memoir by the author of Foreigner and Married to a Stranger describes how she was raised by a beloved widow aunt in Iran, oppressed by a domineering father and restrictive Muslim laws, and torn between the cultures of her home and America.

Persian Girls: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Tarcher

For many years, heartache prevented Nahid Rachlin from turning her sharp novelist's eye inward: to tell the story of how her own life diverged from that of her closest confidante and beloved sister, Pari. Growing up in Iran, both refused to accept traditional Muslim mores, and dreamed of careers in literature and on the stage. Their lives changed abruptly when Pari was coerced by their father into marrying a wealthy and cruel suitor. Nahid narrowly avoided a similar fate, and instead negotiated with him to pursue her studies in America. When Nahid received the unsettling and mysterious news that Pari had died after falling down a flight of stairs, she traveled back to Iran--now under the Islamic regime--to find out what happened to her truest friend, confront her past, and evaluate what the future holds for the heartbroken in a tale of crushing sorrow, sisterhood, and ultimately, hope.

Community & Culture

Penguin Publishing Group

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rachlin, Nahid. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Rachlin, Nahid

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Rachlin, Nahid. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Foreigner

Foreigner: A Novel

Married to a Stranger

Veils: Short Stories

Married to a Stranger

The Heart's Desire

The Heart's Desire (Children of Poverty)

Jumping Over Fire

Persian Girls: A Memoir

Persian Girls: A Memoir