Aria

by Assefi, Nassim

• ISBN13: 9780151012930
• ISBN10: 0151012938
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-05-07
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Summary

Jasmine is a cancer specialist and single mother in Seattle, long estranged from her Iranian parents and heritage. When faced with the sudden accidental death of Aria, her five-year-old daughter, she finds little solace in the healing advice shes prescribed to her patients and their families. Lacking spiritual scaffolding or comforting rituals to cope, Jasmine buys a one-way ticket around the world. Along the way she writes letters: to her three greatest loves, all now dead, and to her devoted friends who encourage her to return home. This deeply spiritual novel is the record of Jasmines journey inward and a moving celebration of the fundamental elements of life: of planting maize in Guatemala, of silent meditation in the mountains of Tibet, and of the rituals of grieving in Iran. It is only when Jasmine, this modern American woman, connects with her ancient heritage that she can finally heal.

Author Biography

NASSIM ASSEFI, a second-generation Iranian-American, is an internist specializing in women’s health and global medicine. Recently she has been an academic in Seattle, a humanitarian aid worker in Kabul, and an aspiring musician in Havana. When not abroad, she lives in Seattle.

Excerpts

Chapter I4 Tir 1369June 25, 1990Yasaman Azizam,Your letter broke our hearts. Baba does not sleep anymore. Truthfully, neither do I. He walks around the house at night like a sleepwalker searching for something he has lost. I tell him you are a grown woman. Thirty-five years old! You have your own life now, but in my heart this does not change anything. I say this only to make him feel better. You do not understand that no matter how old you are or how accomplished, you are still our only child, our baby joon. Nothing can change that. You are our love and our life even if we are far away. I do not know if you can really understand the strength of our love for you until someday, inshaAllah, you become a parent yourself. The love between parent and child is unequal. You can never love your parents more than they love you.You may be American born, but, azizam, you are one hundred percent Irani in your blood and have been brought up in our culture. How can you disgrace yourself and your family by living with this Justin fellow before a proper marriage? How can you be so selfish and not think about your parents, who have sacrificed everything to bring you into this world? I want to tell you to not let him take away your precious jewels, that you should save yourself for your husband, but I think it is too late for that now. So I want to scream this now at my daughter, I want to shake you into listening to your mother, but what is the use? Your father, who cannot keep any secrets, even when he swears to keep them upon the grave of his mother, has not told a word of this to our family here. That is how ashamed we are.Who is this character Justin, anyway? Who has tricked you into letting him move into your life? You tell me he is a high school teacher as if I should be proud. My dear lady doctor, you have the highest graduate degree possible. You went to the top schools. Do you not think that it is a step down to be with a man who does not have an MD or a Ph.D.? You need a man who is your equal, someone to challenge your brilliant mind. In my heart, I always hoped you would find a nice Iranian boy as good as yourself, but I did not let myself pray too hard for this. And I never dreamed you would be with a man from a broken family. Nobody recovers from the trauma of divorced parents. You say he is a wonderful man, kind, generous, and loving. I hope, azizam, that this is true. I hope he is worthy of you and makes you happy. But mostly I want to make sure he loves you enough to make the commitment of marriage. Joony, you should be thinking about having children at this age. Are you sure you are not wasting your time on a substandard man?Americans have such a romantic and unrealistic picture of marriage in their heads. They think they must fall in love before marrying a man. Do you not see that they have it all wrong? Love comes with time, with really knowing each other, with suffering through your differences. Do you think I loved your father when

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Excerpted from Aria by Nassim Assefi
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