The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.

The story begins in Tehran in 1952 and follows the Soleymans, a wealthy Jewish family, through the generations and the battering winds of political turmoil and familial drama to Los Angeles in 2014. A biologically inexplicable glowing heart, a bitter hag with a powerful curse, a shocking marriage proposal, a heartrending kidnapping, nighttime escape, and presumed murder become facets of a much larger, all-encompassing novel that will win your heart.

The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. is a masterpiece that is simultaneously poetic in its unfurling, trans-generational plot, and brutally to the point in the style of a hard-boiled crime novel. The dialogue is believable, the plot well-founded with its interlaced movement through time, and the characters complex, varied, and as prone to error and vice as anyone.

If you’re seeking a story that will be hard to put down, transport you into the ethos of a Jewish Iranian and Iranian-American community pre – and post – the Islamic Revolution, and stir a great empathy within you for all of its characters—even the cruel, this is a book you should not miss. Gina B. Nahai is a writer to keep an eye on.