The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.

One of Jewish Journal‘s Noteworthy Books for the New Year One of Jewish Woman Magazine‘s 8 Great Fall Reads One of Publishers Weekly‘s Big Indie Books of Fall 2014 One of Library Journal‘s 25 Key Indie Fiction Titles for Fall 2014–Winter 2015   “Lyrical, shrewd, and daring novelist Nahai . . . writes with acute emotional and nearly anthropological perception, laser-wit, and deep compassion. . . . With touches of magic realism, extraordinary characters, and a spiraling, multigenerational plot involving fraud, a murder mystery, epic suffering, heroic generosity, women’s struggle for freedom, and the clash between East and West, Nahai’s mythic, tragic, often beautiful immigrant family saga illuminates timeless questions of prejudice, trauma, inheritance, loyalty, and love.” — Booklist, Starred review   “A riveting tale. . . . Readers will be well rewarded.” — Publishers Weekly, Starred review   “A wide-ranging, page-turning, magical realist, multigenerational family saga and Iranian-Jewish-American immigration tale enveloped in a murder mystery . . . it both entertains and instructs, and its differing genres seem more complimentary than conflicting.” — New York Journal of Books   “Nahai has crafted an engaging combination of family saga and murder mystery, placed it in the framework of a relatively unknown subculture, and people it with fascinating characters. Flavored with both elements of magical realism and down-to-earth observations, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. brings a little-known Los Angeles community to vivid life.”
— Shelf Awareness   “What results is a novel that feels more universal than anything, and an engrossing, expansive epic that charts not only thousands of years of Iranian Jewish life, but the brutality of one family’s survival amidst revolution and cultural upheaval.”
— Kirkus Reviews, Feature on Gina B. Nahai   “One of the many pleasures of this sprawling, multigenerational story is the way it transcends the specifics of the Iranian diaspora with insights that could apply to anyone.”
— LA Weekly   “One of Nahai’s gifts is her astute observation of this community, her own, which she describes with unsparing precision.”
— Los Angeles Review of Books   “Nahai’s eye for detail, whether it’s succinctly summing up a funeral or providing a description of a Tehran summer, always seems to be spot on.”
— PopMatters   “An intriguing murder-mystery journey anchored within the Iranian-Jewish community of Los Angeles. Vivid and raw . . . Nahai masterfully introduces us to the mythical and mundane layers that make up Iranian-American identity.”
— Washington Independent Review of Books   “It’s the family connections—the true Iranian heritage—that is the luminous heart of the novel.”
— The Reporter Group   “This is irresistible storytelling . . . Nahai uses her estimable gifts to offer a nuanced, sometimes satirical portrait of the tight-knit Iranian-Jewish exile community in Los Angeles . . . It’s a fascinating read.”
— BookPage   “Nahai has crafted a story that will move you with its exploration of the bonds that tie a family together or tear it asunder.”
— San Diego Jewish Journal   “[Nahai’s] novel has an intoxicating and driving rhythm that pulls you right in . . . [a] beautiful book.”
— Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles   “A sprawling and unlikely combination of Dickens, Gabriel García Márquez and Raymond Chandler, sweeping in the super-rich and the struggles of both Tehran and Los Angeles.”
— The National (UAE)   “Simultaneously ironic, dramatic, and witty.”
— BBC, Ten Books to Read in October   “An energetically inventive epic . . . Nahai’s boisterous, sardonic, sometimes-lurid portrait of a community and the devil in its midst offers unusual, engrossing storytelling.”
— Kirkus Reviews   “Orange Prize and IMPAC Award finalist Nahai (Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith) returns after seven years with a distinctive look at Iranian Jewish life in America, featuring a Los Angeles–based family hounded for decades by an unprincipled financier from their own community. His disappearance upends everything.”
— Library Journal Prepub Alert, “25 Key Indie Fiction Titles, Fall 2014–Winter 2015″   Included in Library Journal‘s Books That Buzzed at BEA Roundup, the first word on titles and trends from Barbara Hoffert, Editor   “With The Luminous Heart of Jonah S., Orange Prize and IMPAC Award finalist Gina B. Nahai returns after seven years with another novel of bristly beauty, offering a distinctive look at Iranian Jewish life in America.”
— Library Journal, Books for the Masses/Editors’ Picks BEA 2014