Reviews

Us&Them

Eux&Nous

The Woman Who Read Too Much

The Saddlebag

“Nakhjavani’s robust debut is a Chaucerian rondo of linked tales, welded into a powerful ominous whole. Her assured style is familiar from early Salman Rushdie, with a lofty moral framework in which characters can transcend their corrupt world or fret their lives away.”

  • James Urquhart, The Times

“A first novel of astonishing power and originality… this is both a thriller and a meditation on the ultimate goal of human existence but most of all it is a celebration of storytelling.”

  • The Good Book Guide

“A remarkable first novel… The language of Nakhjavani’s story is as beautiful as the scenes she describes.”

  • Sue Maguire, Scotland on Sunday

“As with Catch-22 and The God of Small Things, when you finish reading Bahiyyih Nakhjavani’s debut novel, you wonder how the hell she is ever going to be able to follow it up… Nakhjavani’s rich, poetic narrative, steeped in the theology and mythology of the Middle East and South Asia, is a delight to read and her words just dance across the page, dazzling even the casual reader.”

  • Sean Smith, The Big Issue

“Dans le bazar des contes philosophiques et metaphysiques, ou la pacotille cotoie la fine ouvrage, La Sacoche tire dignement son epingle du jeu….A partir d’une intrigue limpide, Bahiyyih Nakhjavani agence impeccablement neuf points de vue successsifs…”

  • Le Monde

“…on retiendra de cette Sacoche cette belle ecriture “litanique” qui fait tout le sel des contes arabes, des Mille et Une Nuits aux amours de Leila et Majnoun. Envoutant.”

  • La Vie

“Quand la litterature atteint de tels niveaux d’exigence structurelle et formelle, on peut sans se tromper affirmer qu’il s’agit d’un miracle. Normal, puisque la plume de la romanciere fait parler aussi les esprits, elebrant de la sorte les noces enchanteresses de l’Orient et de l’Occident.”

  • La Marseillaise

“Il faut un sacre talent, c’est le cas de le dire, non seulement pour captiver un lecteur d’aujourd’hui avec un sujet pareil, qui est manifestement impregne de meditation et de tradition hermetique, mais aussi pour tenir la distance, car ce roman prend le lecteur dans ses rets et ne le libere que lorsqu’il a accmpli tout le parcours, envoute et heureux…Un oeuvre d’art d’une rare ingeniosite, ou les elements du recit s’emboitent au moyen de chevilles touhours inattendues, ou les enchainements ne sont jamais previsibles.”

  • Le Soir

“…[I]n this engaging first novel… characters connect through encounters reminiscent of those in Michael Ondaatje’s tales of unlikely soulmates whose unions bridge vast cultural divides. Nakhjavani’s style reads as if she were adapting 19th– century folktales rather than writing original fiction, and this quality… sets the novel apart from the bulk of contemporary literary fiction and adds immensely to its charm.”

  • Publishers Weekly

“Bahiyyih Nakhjavani is best – really very effective – when she writes of the sandstorms and delusions of our own imperfect Earth.”

  • The Washington Post

For information about Bahiyyih Nakhjavani’s books, please contact her agent Ros Edwards of Edwards Fuglewicz Literary Agency, 49 Great Ormond Street, London WC1N 3HZ, or write to: ros (at) efla (dot) co (dot) uk