The Blood of Flowers

"In rural Iran, a spirited village girl approaches the age of marriage, only to find her destiny shattered after a fiery comet blazes ominously across the desert sky. On the death of her beloved father, the young woman and her distraught mother are forced into a difficult new life in the fabled city of Isfahan. Taken in as house servants by her uncle Gostaham, a well-to-do carpet designer, and his demanding wife, the two women confront an unforgiving world." "When the heroine blossoms as a brilliant maker of carpets under her uncle's tutelage, the future brightens. But disaster strikes again when an impetuous act results in the heroine's disgrace, forcing her into a secret marriage. If she is to thrive, she must risk the family's reputation and rely on her artistic genius, and her extraordinary will, to save herself and her mother." "Seventeenth-century Iran comes alive in all its splendour and cultural nuance in this luminous novel. The bustle of bazaars overflowing with rosewater and saffron; the breathtakingly beautiful silk and gold rugs of the Shah's carpet workshop; and Isfahan's incomparable bridges, gardens, teahouses, and hammams: all are captured here."--BOOK JACKET.