Product Description

Fleeing a neocolonial oil town in southern Iran as Khomeini rises to power, the Ellahi family emigrates to the US, where Nora and her adopted brother Jahan struggle to end their incestuous attachment, get through college, and forge independent lives. Confronted by anti-Iranian hostility, Jahan is drawn to Islam, ultimately going back to join the Iranian army to fight Saddam Hussein, while Nora takes advantage of the greater opportunities and personal freedom for women here.

Nahid Rachlin is the Iranian-American author of Veils, Foreigner, Married to a Stranger, and The Heart's Desire. She teaches at New School University and the Unterberg Poetry Center in New York.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #162057 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Rachlin illuminates the private and public consequences of the Islamic revolution in her latest novel of 20th-century Iranian life (Heart's Desire). Nora Ellahi, the daughter of an Iranian doctor and his American wife, lives a sheltered life among the economic elite of the oil city Masjid-e-Suleiman in the 1970s. While dissatisfaction with the ruling Shah and resentment of foreign influence spills over into street demonstrations, Nora grows increasingly attracted to her adopted brother, Jahan, a full Iranian, and their sexual affair blossoms during a summer at their country house in Meigoon. Nora and Jahan's illicit relationship plays out against the backdrop of a restrictive society, and the burgeoning revolution lends tension to each daily activity. The novel's less propulsive second half is set in America. When the revolution reaches Masjid-e-Suleiman, the Ellahi family leaves Iran and resettles in Long Island, where Nora revels in the more liberal society but the rest of the family struggles to adapt. Ultimately, Jahan must choose between the freedom of America and the patriotic call of serving his birth country in the Iran-Iraq war. Though Rachlin sometimes sacrifices art for clarity with her straightforward writing, she delivers a complex portrait of a divided Iran. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School–When Muslim extremists outlaw the Persian tradition of bonfires in celebration of Norooz (New Year), the children in Nora and Jahan's neighborhood build their own small fires in the street, jumping and playing until police chase them back into their houses. This is just one of many gemlike memories that, strung together like a series of Persian miniatures, relate Nora's story of her life in a world fragmented by irreconcilable forces. As children, the privileged daughter and son of an American mother and an Iranian father create a magical world of their own within a larger doll's house, the housing compound of the Iranian-American Oil Company. As they enter adolescence, they discover that Jahan was adopted, and their love takes an erotic and ambiguously incestuous turn. When political unrest forces the family to escape to America, they must build new lives; there, and finally in Iran, the now-mostly-American Nora and the now-mostly-Persian Jahan ultimately free themselves of their secret pasts and find very different paths to adulthood. Complexities of Iranian culture, recent history, and current events create a vivid background for a moving and suspenseful story. A deeply flawed family, and the people of many nationalities who touch their lives, is seen with a clear but forgiving eye; the heavy toll of intolerance is shown with an unsparing one. A discussion guide is provided, though it seems unlikely most groups would need one to spark a lively interchange of ideas inspired by this wise and timely novel.–Christine C. Menefee, formerly at Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In Rachlin's engaging novel about cultural collision, Nora Ellahi and her brother, Jahan, enjoy a nearly idyllic early life in Iran in the 1960s and early '70s. They live with father Cyrus, a radiologist in the company hospital, and American-born mother Moira in a large house in the Iranian American Oil Company compound, to all appearances a perfect family. Nora and Jahan are friends as well as siblings--indeed, they are lovers--but eventually, envying the freedom of girls in American movies, Nora begins to strain against the strictures of Iranian culture. She seemingly has a wish fulfilled when the family must flee Iran in 1978. She and Jahan secretly hope to be free to go off on their own. But in the U.S., Jahan suffers anti-Iranian hostility, and he, like his father, bristles at American casualness. The stress of a profound cultural adjustment drives a wedge between Jahan and Nora, ultimately separating them to follow disparate loyalties. Donna Chavez
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Interesting topic!
I enjoyed reading about Iran but was somewhat disturbed by the characters. Nora and Jahan are so very close but something was beyond close, just downright weird!

I believe that Ms. Rachlin finds an interesting way out of the problem at the end of the novel but it was just a little too much about obsession. Although Nora, the main female, mentions her mom and dad's intense love with each other, basically it was a childhood for the children void of some good nurturing. Perhaps this was where the brother sister attachment comes in, but incest, is kind of hard to understand here and never do I understand what "causes" this unusual obsession with each other.

I sure hope that this was not a true story, it would be too sad for all parties.

The One Eyed Turtle

An Absolutely Fabulous Novel
This novel kept me up until 3:30 AM because I just could not bear to put it down. It is an incredible story of secrets, cultures, love, and the ties that bind. It was a wonderful detailed account of an Iranian-American girl, her brother, and their parents and of their challenges as they lived through the revolution and their flight to America (and the new challenges that were presented there). A fabulous read! I can't wait to start reading Nahid Rachlin's other novels.

Linda Jo Smith Reviews
Jumping Over Fire, is a timely novel about family values, self respect, love and passion. The story unfolds in Masjid-e-Suleiman, Iran in the early 1970's during the fall of the Shah of Iran. The Ellahi family lived in a spacious two-story house with two parents, two children and a maid on an Iranian American Oil Company compound. Moira, the mother, left her Irish-American Catholic roots in Ohio to work in Iran as a nurse. Cyrus, the Iranian father, was a radiologist. Both were both employed by the Oil Company's hospital located within the compound when they met. They eventually married, adopted a boy of Iranian descent, Jahan, and a year later Moira gave birth to a blond baby girl, Nora.

Nora tells the story in first person. She tells of how she and her brother Jahan were inseparable and loving, and how their parents generally ignored them. Cyrus and Moira loved the children very much, yet they seemed to lavish their affections on each other instead of the children. The children were a couple themselves as they went everywhere and did everything together.

Nora and Jahan were usually left to be on their own aside from the maid, Golpar, who was a traditional Muslim woman. Golpar cooked and served meals to the children, reminded them how they should conduct themselves in public and often provided comfort in the parents' absence. Since they often ventured out into the city for entertainment and shopping they had to be mindful that their Western upbringing would not translate into disrespect for Iranian tradition.

The discovery of Jahan's adoption in their teenage years spurs a romantic, yet defiant relationship in the midst of the Iran hostage crisis and the Ayatollah Khomeini's coming to power. The two no longer consider themselves as siblings giving way to their carnal desires, yet they were fearful of being discovered not only by their parents, but by traditional outsiders who would exert serious consequences to them and their family.

The family's association with the oil industry and their refusal to practice the staunch traditions of Islam made it dangerous for them to remain in Iran. Jahan's embrace of his Iranian heritage and Nora's refusal to be locked in the "traditional ways" brings about conflict between the two of them as the entire family faced the political turbulence that jeopardized their safety. Eventually, Khomeini's take over of the police and government forced the family to immigrate to America. It is in America where the family relationships become redefined.

Although somewhat predictable, I found Jumping Over Fire to be an interesting read especially since we encounter immigrants from the Middle East in our daily lives. It offers an understanding of the conflicting traditional and orthodox morals of Islam and its impact in global society. Jumping Over Fire would be invaluable resource for public library book discussion groups and reading groups of diverse nationalities. The Reading Group Guide promotes interesting dialogue regarding the moral issues and challenges of "blended" American families.