It's good, but many versions of this story have been told before. If you have never read anything about what happened in Iran during the first years after the revolution, then this book tells you something new. Otherwise, it's just another version of the same story. A big difference though, is that the author has not experienced these things personally, and many things are creations of her imagination, back by research. When you read the same things from someone who has lived them, you can feel the real touch, and therefore get a more realistic picture.

Remarkable reading! How sad that women are so badly abused by the so-called "Holy Men". I wish the women of Iran could stand up for themselves.

This book grabbed me with its emotional honesty and penchant for describing horrific events without pandering to shock value that is common today. I normally read non-fiction. I was initially turned off by the title because I was concerned that it was a cheap ploy on the words September and Shiraz (not knowing that Shiraz was actually a place, not a reference to the popular class of wine); additionally the size of the font and number of chapters led me to wonder whether I really was, in essence, selecting a pulp novel (not a choice I would normally make). However, I became interested in the characters immediately, and remained interested in them throughout the entire book. I do have a lingering doubt as to how a 9 year old could pull off some of the derring-do that Shirin was able to accomplish without being caught; it almost seems like an adult author was identifying with that character and has imbued certain attributes of an older person's recollection on that character's personality and abilities; a recollection that, perhaps, has grown rosier over time (Note: I have an 11 year old daughter who wouldn't have been able to do what Shirin did; perhaps one grows up earlier in other countries). I am not from the Middle East, nor am I Jewish. The book touched me in such a way that I still think about each of the members of the Amin family, as if I had known them personally. I highly recommend this book, and await, with high anticipation, Sofer's next literary effort.

I bought eight copies of this book for all the family members who claim this is the story of our lives. Born in Egypt, we left in 1966 (I was 8). The alienation, the humiliation and the isolation we felt not only in Egypt, but in the lands where we ended up are so clearly expressed in this book that it is if the author had written our story. My mom cried as she read the book twice, and wished she did not have to read the last page. It is heart breaking but true. I am in the process of writing our story, our exodus from Egypt and this is a sister story that justified our feelings and shared memories. Thank you so much for a masterpiece of precision and love.

Young Iranian-American writer Dalia Sofer is one whose ample literary talents offer much promise of a bright career awaiting her, if her literary debut "The Septembers of Shiraz" is any indication. Her debut novel is one of the most fascinating recent literary debuts I've come across, almost rivaling Eugene Drucker's "The Savior" for both its intriguing characters, harsh subject matter, and emotional intensity. "The Septembers of Shiraz" could be seen as an Iranian-American version of Tolstoy's "War and Peace", as the novel's leading protagonists, Tehran Jewish jeweler Isaac Amin and his wife Farnaz, learn to cope with his inexplicable, six month-long internment as a political prisoner of Ayatollah Khomeini's theocratic totalitarian dictatorship, during the early, bloody years of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Indeed, among the most powerful, most emotionally visceral prose depicts isaac's harsh imprisonment in Teheran's worst, most notorious, political prison, subjected daily to unspeakable acts of brutality by the regime's Revolutionary Guards. Meanwhile, in distant New York City, their son Parviz finds some tranquil solace, and the glimmerings of a romance, within the Crown Heights, Brooklyn Hasidic Jewish community, while studying architecture. But the most remarkable character of all might be his nine year-old sister Shirin, who, unknowingly, becomes a successful dissenter against the Islamic Republic's bloodthirsty revolutionary fervor. Sofer's novel is one I found almost impossible to put down, easily compelled by the Amins' tragic tales of woe; it is unquestionably among the finest novels published in 2007.

Dahlia Sofer's The Septembers of Shiraz is a wonderful novel, a pleasure to read. This heartbreaking, evocative story concerns an Iranian family in post-revolutionary Iran and opens with the arrest and ensuing imprisonment of Isaac, the patriarch. Tbe novel shifts perspectives from chapter to chapter, first Isaac, then his wife, then his young daughter and finally his son, an architecture student living in Brooklyn. Isaac's family are essentially non-practicing Jews. Parviz, the son, lives with Hasidic Jews in Brooklyn and Sofer's juxtapositioning of the two intensely religious peoples, the Iranian Muslims imprisoning Isaac and the Jewish family renting an apartment to Parviz is thought-provoking. The Septembers of Shiraz is a compelling novel, and would be an excellent choice for book clubs, as there is much to discuss in here. Enjoy.

The author, being an Iranian of the generation that was too young to clearly remember the revolution, has wisely chosen to write a fictionalized memoir.

Isaac Amin, a gem dealer in Tehran, who has pulled himself up from a very modest slums of Khoramshahr, a southern oil district of Iran, to the wealthy upper class Tehran's society, is arrested shortly after the Revolution. His son, who is studying in New York, his wife, a vocalist, and his young daughter, are devastated and overwhelmed by the sudden changes for which they were unprepared.

Even though the story is related in the third person, I still have the impression that Shirin, then nine years old, is telling us a true story long after she and her family landed safely in the United States. I think the author in her interviews reinforced this impression, though I'm not sure that she intended to.

There are three distinct settings in the novel: jail, where Amin is, the family home in Tehran, where Farnaz and Shirin (Amin's wife and daughter) are living, and New York City, where Parviz (Amin and Farnaz's older son) studies. The most vivid description of these lives is the Amin's jail experience, which stands out among them. Next to his life in jail comes Parviz's life in New York, which we learn more about. Farnaz and her daughter are notably ignored until the last chapter of the book, in which we feel their presence when they are given the best seats in the front of the truck over the boarder to Turkey. Amin had made sure to pay extra for their safety and comfort.

The book's blurb says, "The September of Shiraz simmers with questions of identity, alienation, and love, not just for a spouse or a child (the father is the protagonist of the story) but for the unnameable, uncountable sights and sounds of the places we call home." If this novel is about love and identity, it was totally lost to me. While it has just a casual acquaintance with love, it has much more to say about the pain, though of a particular kind. It is about the abuse of human rights, arrest, confiscation, torture, bribing, smuggling, corruption, and lawlessness. It is the recording of pain in the solitude of jail, where colorlessness and hopelessness cast a deeper shadow on pain and turn it into a horror. Those of us who have had dear ones in and out of Evin Prison know very well how daring it is to learn about the pain and suffering there. As far as I know, those who have experience it don't voluntarily sharing it either. Dalia Sofer, with amazing courage, dares to look into this abyss and freezes everything into words; delightfully, she does it without rage or anger.

The book was a tribute to the pain and suffering of those whose suffering was not in retribution for their wrongdoings, but merely to their slipping into the wrong side of life by sheer chance. It is a heartbreaking tale of a man who happens to fall out of favor when society goes through changes. Amin's suffering in jail is the most elaborate and the most vivid part of the book. It is the life in those smelly, blood-smeared, insect-infested, moldy cells, smeared with blood cells which works on our heart, rather than those outside of the cell, except for those breath-taking pages when Shirin is steals some files and again when she buries them in the garden.

In contrasted to Amin's experiences in his enforced solitude, which comes to us so sharply and vividly, Farnaz's experience is passed over. Even her identity remains obscure to the reader. There is not even one incident in the book in which a friend visits her or any occasion for her to visit anyone. There are no Sabbath dinners with friends or relatives, no friends calling, no one dropping by; she is all alone while Amin is in jail.

Though the book is about suffering, there is none of the Farnaz's pain depicted in it. Given the impression I have regarding the story's point of view, I'm puzzled by the absence of Farnaz and the indifferences of the author to her.

New York City gives life a better chance to display itself. We know more about Parviz than Farnaz and Shirin. Since the book was published in the United States, we need something for the local reader to connect to. But that aside, a parallel runs through the story, if not a connection. Briefly, Parviz, adopted by a Hasidic family, discovers how unyielding is the space between connection and interruption. One false move, one misspoken word, and you find yourself on the wrong side of things.

It is this thin wall which is the most frightening aspect of our modern life, this unreliability and unpredictability, this living by chance, by a flip of the coin, this unexpected "all of a sudden" which turns Isaac Amin's life upside down and sends Parviz to the wrong side the wall. The only difference is that by pure luck, Parviz is better suited on the wrong side, but Isaac is not.

Clair Messud, in her very favorable review, holds out the hope that this book will become "a classic," alongside The Great Gatsby. But, there is a long way to go for the September of Shiraz to become a classic, for a novel in which two of its four characters do not find a chance to appear fully or even to develop at all and whose subplots have no connection to the main plot except through the blood relation. Why are we are in such a rush? The author is too young and has just started, it is her first novel. Let's do not go that far. It takes a bit more than one review in The New York Times to make any book a classic.

Yes, Sofir's story is very good for a novice writer. A work in the progress, I would call it. Let the story to be read and judged by its readers, and not friendly critic, and let's see if it withstands its readers' demands. Let's see if it answers reader's questions. Then, in due time, it will become a classic disregarding the capricious market.

An insight into the post Iranian Revolution, beautfully written. A subject such as this could have been difficult to read but the author has a wonderful light touch. The Amin family, well to do non-muslims, fall out of favor with the regime and suffer many consequences. A wonderful new writer has emerged.

To say that this book is set in the days after the Iranian revolution seems to me to be a bit misleading. It is certainly true but it lends the impression that this is a political book or a book that is filled with tales of misery and oppression. While the author doesn't flinch from the unsavory details, that's really not what this book is about. What it is about is how a family does their best to deal with their reality.

Isaac Amin is the obvious victim of the story. While doing paperwork one day, he is unceremoniously arrested. The details of his life in prison are harsh and matter-of-fact but are presented in such a stark way that it makes the horrors all the more real. Sofer doesn't need to get into the gory details because simply writing about how this man survives his trip into hell is all the vivid detail a reader could possibly need. The atrocities committed in the prison aren't prettied up but their presentation as mere facts of life makes the telling of them all the more chilling. How terrible to have to live through such an ordeal.

Equally compelling, though, are the details of Isaac's wife Farnaz's daily struggles. She is in a prison of a different sort, one in which she has to try to carry on with some sort of normal life, all the while knowing that her husband's fate hangs in the balance. She must deal with questions that are all too natural for someone in such a situation, wondering if those around her whom she has trusted the most have perhaps betrayed her in the most fundamental of manners. She is also forced to reckon with her own missteps, with the many past occassions during which she has taken for granted the service and loyalty of others, as we are all wont to do. Both Farnaz and Isaac must face the sudden realization that their sense of entitlement may very well be their undoing.

While I found the tale of their son, Parviz, less sympathetic, he was an interesting character nonetheless. Forced for the first time in his life to make his own way, he stumbles and occassionally falls. He must deal with his own realities, with the sudden understanding that the life of privilege he has always known has suddenly dissolved.

The most sympathetic character, for me, was Shirin. She is an adult trapped in a child's body, forced at a very tender age to deal with some very frightening realities. When a hasty act of bravery comes back to haunt her, she must deal with the burden of knowing that her own small act of heroism might be the undoing of her family. Her tale is one of small actions that have large consequences--sometimes good and sometimes bad--that underscore how the small ripples that we create in the pond of life can sometimes have the largest and most widespread rings.

This novel is really a masterwork, one that is haunting and thought provoking on so many levels. It is a tale of human fralities and contradictions, of the tyranny of both the privileged and the have nots, and of the dangers of taking ones life for granted. Sofer's prose is lovely, her images vivid and full of life. She is truly a gifted author who will hopefully have more tales to share.

Fascinating, superbly written novel which read like non-fiction. Not knowing much about Iran, I found this book informative, yet very sensitive. I look forward to more books by this talented young woman.

Dalia Sofer has written a poignant portrait of an Iranian family coping with the onslaught of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. We see the upheaval of a seemingly peaceful life through the eyes a little girl, a father thrown into prison, a teenage son who is dealing with the strangeness of his own new life in America, and the mother/wife who must care for her daughter, wonder about husband, and survive in a world very different then the one she had known all her life.

Sofer refrains from painting all Iranians as evil doers. Even in prison a guard risks his life to help others.

This is an important book which helps us understand a nation at the center of our world.

This was a fabulous book. It gives so much information about Iran and the way the people live. This story was concerning the Cultural Revolution of the 1980's. It was amazing to me how the people learned to cope with impossible situations. I highly recommend this book.

I have rarely read a debut novel as polished and moving as this one. Each of the characters -- from main characters to secondary ones -- is a three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood person who rings true.

The plot, taking place in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, focuses on the Amin family: Isaac, a rare-gem dealer who is forced to navigate the terrors of an indifferent and cruel prison system, his wife Farniz, who must find courage as the world she lives in turns upside down, Shirin, a heart-breaking nine year old girl who struggles to find meaning, and Parvis, the ex-patriot son who lives in the Hassidic Brooklyn neighborhood.

The book has a lot to say about everything that's important: the meaning of love and family, the divisions that religion can cause, the upheavals of misguided revolutions, class struggles, the symbolism of "home", the tenacity needed to move forward, and mostly, what it means to be human in an often inhuman world. And it says it with compassion and understanding.

Along the way, the novel deals movingly with questions of identity, love, home, and really matters in life. Like the gems that Isaac lovingly crafts, some break easily, others shine brightly, and still others stand the test of time.

First let me say that I loved this story. Having said that, after you read it through ... not a lot really happens. And what happens is a fairly linear progression of events. (I won't spoil it by summarizing it for you). What made it so interesting and appealing to me was the color wrapped around the story. Notwithstanding the horror of Isaac Amin's plight, it's also the flashbacks, the glimpses of life before as well as what life has become for this family, the loving detail applied to descriptions of the accoutrements of their lives, the relationships. Incredibly rich and vivid. You will enjoy it immensely.

This story wrapped itself around my heart. The skill with which it is written introduces us to the talent of a very gifted writer. Thank you
Dalia Sofer.

Very interesting read. The author has a very special way of putting the reader there in Iran. I learned a lot about the people of this struggling country and the leaders. Definitely a page turner and will look forward to another novel by Dalia Sofer.

A good first novel about a Sephardic family in Iran dealing with the Iranian revolution, and their son living in New York and dealing with his own outsider issues. It was a satisfying read and very well-written. Sometimes it seemed a little ponderous but it had some moving and touching moments and a little bit of suspense. I like the way the author started by throwing the reader right in the middle of the action and let the story and the characters blossom out from the center. I found the portrayals more or less balanced and the main characters likeable enough. A good read.

This is an incredibly powerful debut novel from Dalia Sofer. I had high expectations for this book after reading a very positive review by Claire Messud in the New York Times. Needless to say, "The Septembers of Shiraz" lived up to its advance praise and I highly recommend it.

The story centers on a Iranian Jewish family living in post-revolutionary Iran (1981). Isaac, the father, is a gemologist with a successful business. His life and that of his family is turned upside down when he unexpectedly arrested by the Revolutionary Guard and taken to prison. There Amin is physically, mentally and emotionally tortured for a confession about being a traitor and his connection to the deposed regime of the former Shah.

Meanwhile, Isaac's family, Farnaz (wife), Shirin (9 year old daughter) and Parviz (college student living in Brookly) struggle to cope with the imprisonment of Isaac. Sofer wonderfully captures the hopes, fears and challenges each of them face through their distinctively different perspectives and situations. Sofer does a wonderful job going far beyond the expected stereotypes to paint the complex nature of human relationships -- how these relationships exist in times of "peace" and how they exist in times of turmoil. Especially powerful is Sofer's exploration of Farnaz's relationship with their housekeeper Habibeh. Her son used to work for Amin and is now part of the Revolutionary Guard.

"Septembers of Shiraz" causes us to reflect on several sweeping themes -- how complicitous is an individual who benefits from a situation without directly supporting that underlying situation? Is it possible for power not to corrupt those when they go from ruled to ruler? What is one's connection to country vs. religion?

Sofer's writing is truly captivating. She writes with a simplicity and sense of confidence that is quite unique for a first time novelist. While she creates well rounded portraits of her characters, she really excels when dealing with the inter-relationships of those characters. Also, with very few exceptions, she does not cross over into the predictable.

Overall, this is one of the most compelling and satisfying books that I have read this year. I certainly hope that more people discover this book and get to enjoy a promising new literary voice.

"The Septembers of Shiraz" kept me on the edge of my seat. This is an "impossible to put down" book, well written and full of painful personal as well as political insights. Immerse yourself in this one.

I thought this book was beautifully and very vividly written. I love getting insight into other cultures and trying to relate to people that at first glance may seem so different than me. I would absolutely recommend this book and I look forward to future works by this author--however if you're looking for something "light" or uplifting.....this is not the book for you. Buy it, but put it aside and read it when you can handle it because the Iran described is a rough, unfair, misogynistic and frustrating place.

I thought this book was very moving, beautifully written and am looking forward to Dalia Sofer's next novel.

This is an excellent first novel. Dalia Sofer tells the story of the Amin family, a wealthy Iranian-Jewish family caught up in the ugly repression that followed the overthrow of the shah, in a quiet, dignified style, with detail building upon detail. Jeweler Isaac Amin is snatched from his home and imprisoned by the Revolutionary Guards, for no other reason than the fact that he is affluent and Jewish. His efforts to convince his captors that he is no Israeli spy and end his Kafkaesque tortures and interrogations are described very convincingly.

Particularly notable are Sofer's efforts to portray the ideology of Amin's captors and their sympathizers and to give them a chance to speak for themselves. She does not countenance political murder, religious repression, or anti-semitism, far from it, and her sympathies are with the oppressed; but she does give her villains a voice. Why are some people the masters and some the servants? Was the Iranian upper class complicit in the repression conducted by the shah's goons before his overthrow? These are some of the questions that she asks and these help give the book considerable nuance.

I would have given this book five stars, but the ending failed to satisfy the emotional build-up of the previous 100 pages. The book seemed to peter out rather than to end in a meaningful way.

I enjoyed reading Dalia Sofer's book and at times I found that I simply could not put it down. It is interesting to read the story from the point of view of an upper middle class fairly ASSIMILATED Jews from Iran.

Dalia portrayal of all her characters was warm and humane without idealizing any of them. She was kind to the Moslem Iranian revolutionaries, the lower classes, as well as to the clue-less antagonists and the welcoming yet "different" Hasidim of Brooklyn.

Her treatment of all involved was humane. Good first book.

Plenty of people who had any ties to the Shah were destroyed by the changing of the guard (yes, Muslims, too, if you can believe that!) and accused of working hand in hand with Israelis. The author tries tepidly to distinguish between Zionism and Jewishness and show that the Iranian government too made the distinction but as can be seen by the idiotic Publisher's Weekly review, this falls on deaf American ears eager to complete the genocide against Muslims in the Middle East for their selfish gains...while using Jews as their excuse to rape and pillage, too!

This was a good book, but not a great one. The writing is solid, but not outstanding. The presentation of varied perspectives on the implications of the revolution was the strongest point. A successful man, his long-suffering wife, their young daughter, and their college-aged son, all Jewish, all dealing with the man's imprisonment. Sofer makes each perspective unique and believable. The changing of perspective with each chapter makes for a strange narrative thread. It's the same technique Khaled Hosseini uses in A Thousand Splendid Suns, but Hosseini maintains the narrative structure much more effectively. There are a number of extraneous characters with their own storylines/ephemera that could have been cut to focus the story. All in all though, a good book.

Be it the French, Russian or Iranian Revolutions, once the powerful have fallen it is always the middle class that suffers at the hand of the Revolu- tionaries. Unlike the first two though, the Islamic Revolution has yet to turn on it's own, though it's doing a good job of killing a lot of muslim brothers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The government of the Shah of Iran, ruled much like those in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union and in modern Egypt. The government can take anyone it suspects off the street and then torture them until they admit to their mistakes (or some one else's, it's not really important whose they were). In the case of Iran, anyone who was part of the Shah's government or prospered during his reign was earmarked as a 'traitor' to the People.

In this case, Isaac Amin was more guilty of having made money under the Shah than for (being a Jew) an 'Israeli Spy'. There has been a Jewish community in Iran (Persia) since before Cyrus the Great (3000 years ago). Just like in Europe, the Jews of Iran have prospers under some and been persecuted under other rulers. With the overthrow of the Shah, the Revolutionary Guard, went after all those who were collaborators with the Shah's regime. The proof of this was that having taken over his summer house, his business and 'accepted' his 'donation' of his life's savings; he is released from jail. Had they really wanted him as a 'Spy' they would have taken everything he had and then killed him.

The anguish of the family is well represented by the narrative by the nine year old daughter as she watches her world crumble. In addition we are also treated to the harshness and loneliness of what the new life will be for them as it is foreshadowed by her brother who is in America. Only some one who has had to give up their culture can understand the feeling of discontinuity when going to live somewhere else. No matter how badly you were treated, or how poorly you lived, it is still the root upon which your family and identity were built on.

My grandfather who came to America from Russia (not totally voluntarily, his choice was death or emigration), always said that he could never be 100% American, because his brains were still planted in Europe. The soil of European culture had nurtured his childhood, and he would always look back to it at times of crisis, the way you look back to your parents for help, no matter your age.

Dalia Sofer has written a memoir of a time and place that no longer exist and have little chance of ever being revived (even in the suburbs of Los Angeles). Like Persopolis it has been destroyed and only the ruins stand to remind people that it ever existed.

This first novel is absolutely beautiful. Ms. Sofer writes with such feeling that you are carried away by the characters and you feel as if you are with them in their pain and joy. This book was literally mesmerizing. She tells her story in such a poignant and touching way. I look forward to her future works.

This was a wonderful story. I especially appreciated the author's ability to weave the story while giving me an education into Iran during this country's revolutionary period during the early 80's. Without a doubt this is a moving story of the struggles of a Jewish family that had to cope with turmoil during this period. The prison scenes were something that I will never forget. The characters are well defined and this is a superb novel that is written extremely well and Dalis Sofer writing skills ensured that the story was not all gloom and doom. I always had the desire to read the next chapter and with each chapter being filled with a terrific story line. In summary, I would not hesitate to recommend this book to my friends and I can hardly wait for the author's next release.

Looking for a refreshing Women's Fiction then check out Gathering of Cans by Robert L. Saunders. Mr. Saunders created a skillful plot and a excellent cast of characters in this amazing story. At 55, Zoie Baker, the heroine, is a dauntless dreamer that feels she must gather aluminum cans to build a swimming pool for the local children. Mr. Unique cans, Nehi, Coke, Bud, etc., take the reader on a real page turning journey and the ending will astonish you. This is a powerhouse tale, you won't be disappointed. Bye.

I purchased this book after seeing positive reviews in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. This is one of the best books I've read, with tight yet lyrical language that enabled me, someone who's never been to Iran or been in a situation akin to that the Amin family faced, to enter their world and understand their changing feelings and actions. The characters were powerfully drawn, and the reader feels empathy for the dilemmas faced by Isaac, the imprisoned father, Farnaz, his somewhat estranged wife, Shirin, the daughter, and Parviz, the son so far away. And despite the tragic events, we see growth in how the characters see themselves and relate to each other. This book richly deserves the positive reviews it has received, and I wish Ms. Sofer a long and productive career!

I tore through The Septembers of Shiraz in two days. It is gripping, moving, and perceptive. Although firmly based in the details and culture of Iran, the story is universal in showing how an apolitical but privileged family gets caught in the gears of a horrific totalitarian regime.

A lot of books about political repression focus on a person who has been imprisoned and tortured. Sofer writes about such a prisoner, but she gives equal attention to the wife, son and daughter of the man who has been imprisoned -- showing how they too suffer and cope.

I really recommend this.

I

This new novel has a tone of rare refinement throughout. The characters speak carefully, the descriptions are painterly, and the story is poignant. When so many new novels are snarky, hard boiled and vulgar, it is a relief to read a book obviously written by a refined person and very talented novelist. Dalia Sofer gave me insight into the life Iranian Jews must have led before they turned up overnight in my community in the early 1980s. In this beautifully rendered novel, feelings spring from the page: the work-obsessed husband falsely imprisoned, the vain but loving wife, the bewildered and innocent 9 year old daughter, and the 18 year old son, an architecture student cast adrift in Hasidic Brooklyn of all places. The scenes in Brooklyn are well rendered and the Hasidim accurately pictured. I can only assume that the Iranian scenes are equally true to life. There were certain scenes that did not ring true, though. How is it possible on a teeming Hasidic street, where small children watch from front porches and elderly women peer through windows, that a young couple could feel free enough to walk together before they were engaged? Unrealistic! And a pivotal plot device turns on a Hasidic emissary having a forbidden romance while abroad. Again, unrealistic for the very reason that Lubavitch emissaries are always married couples, never single men. An absorbing story, and an inspiring one.

After reading the review in the New York Times, I decided to pick this up. The review of this debut novel was so good, I had to give it a try. I was not disappointed. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who appreciates a great piece of literature. (Even "middle class housewives in the midwest"...see reviewer below.)

I can't believe this is Sofer's first book. Normally, I'm not inclined to buy debut novels - regardless of how good the reviews are. Also, I'm even less likely, generally, to buy hardcover books. I've got plenty of work-related stuff to lug around daily, so paperbacks are simply easier on my back. This book, however, was an exception. Indeed, it is exceptional.

I started reading chapter 1 in the bookstore, thinking I'll skim a few lines before heading over to the "new in paperback" table. But I was hooked. It didn't grab me aggressively like a mystery or action novel. I can't explain it, really. It just made me want to sit down right there in the store and keep reading.

Indeed, the subject is compelling and the book does begin with a dramatic event. But Sofer's prose is so eloquent - it makes you want to keep reading simply for the joy of reading, as well as to find out what happens.

As for my dilemma - whether to buy or not to buy? Well, there were no comfortable places to sit in the bookstore, so I took the plunge and bought it. I deliberately read it slowly to maximize the pleasure from my investment. Even so, I'll probably re-read it this weekend.