Bone Worship

Jasmine Fahroodhi has always been fascinated by her enigmatic Iranian father. With his strange habits and shrouded past, she can't fathom how he ended up marrying her prim American mother.

But lately love in general feels just as incomprehensible. After a disastrous romance sends her into a tailspin, causing her to fail out of college just shy of graduation, a conflicted Jasmine returns home without any idea where her life is headed.

Her father has at least one idea—he has big plans for a hastegar, an arranged marriage. Confused, furious, but intrigued, Jasmine searches for her match, meeting suitor after suitor with increasingly disastrous (and humorous) results. As she begins to open herself up to the mysteries of familial and romantic love, Jasmine discovers the truth about her father, and an even more evasive figure—herself—in this highly original and striking debut novel.

A rich and soul-searching novel about an Iranian-American girl whose enigmatic father has decided to arrange her marriage.

Publishers Weekly

Eslami's clumsy debut attempts to unsnarl the relationships that paralyze a dysfunctional Iranian-American family living in Arrowhead, Ga. When Jasmine Fahroodhi flunks out of the University of Chicago just shy of graduation, her parents bring her home to marry her off. Even though her aloof doctor father, Yusef, married an American instead of the bride his parents chose for him, he wants Jasmine's marriage to be arranged. Jasmine's endlessly cheerful former cheerleader mother, Margaret, embraces “Plan B” with a startling zeal, though Jasmine's youthful angst leads her to vacillate between passivity and sudden outbursts of sarcasm as she submits to a series of interminable dinners with a parade of unsuitable suitors. Unfortunately, Eslami loses her footing in the last third of the book when Yusef encounters vague but troubling medical problems, Jasmine finally finds something to care about in a new job and the perfect man with a mysterious past enters the scene. Things end peachily, but the facile resolution and tepid finale feel as forced as put-upon Jasmine's feel-good turnaround. (Jan.)

Iranian-American author Elizabeth Eslami was born in South Carolina in 1978. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an M.F.A. in creative writing from Warren Wilson College. She has published numerous short stories. Bone Worship is her first novel. She lives in Eugene, OR.