The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.

"Equal parts Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Persian Bonfire of the Vanities, this is Gina B. Nahai's breakout book, a quantum leap forward in ambition, humor, and scope that's sure to win her legions of new fans and catapult her onto 'Best Book of the Year' and award short lists. Set in 1950s–'90s Tehran and LA, and gleefully skewering the excesses of both, Nahai's assured, masterly voice sweeps the reader in with its page-turning murder plot, but it's her colorful characters--who are by turns diabolical, hilarious, poignant, scheming, vengeful, tragic, and lovelorn--who form this book's pulsing, exuberant heart."
--Denise Hamilton, author of Damage Control

"Gina B. Nahai uses her gift for storytelling to add to the pantheon of American immigrant tales, but this time with an Iranian Jewish twist. This novel not only entertains, but asks the bigger question: do immigrants reinvent themselves in America or simply live out their destinies?"
--Firoozeh Dumas, author of Funny in Farsi

Praise for Gina B. Nahai:

"A skilled and inventive writer."
--New York Times Book Review

"Nahai's writing recalls that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Amy Tan, yet her prose bears its own stamp of inventiveness and vivacity...A modern-day Scheherazade."
--Orlando Sentinel

"From her clear-eyed yet deeply emphatic perch in the New World, Nahai sounds the emotional costs of exile as she explores the trauma of loss for her fellow emigres. She is, after all, that subculture's finest chronicler."
--Chicago Tribune

From Tehran to Los Angeles, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. is a sweeping saga that tells the story of the Soleymans, an Iranian Jewish family tormented for decades by Raphael's Son, a crafty and unscrupulous financier who has futilely claimed to be an heir to the family's fortune. Forty years later in Los Angeles, Raphael's Son has nearly achieved his goal--until he suddenly disappears, presumed by many to have been murdered. The possible suspects are legion: his long-suffering wife; numerous members of the Soleyman clan exacting revenge; the scores of investors he bankrupted in a Ponzi scheme; or perhaps even his disgruntled bookkeeper and longtime confidant.

Award-winner Nahai pulls back the curtain on a close-knit community that survived centuries of persecution in Iran before settling and thriving in the United States, but now finds itself divided to the core by one of its own members. By turns hilarious and affecting, Nahai examines the eternal bonds of family and community, and the lasting scars of exile.

Gina B. Nahai is a best-selling author, columnist, and full-time lecturer at USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program. Her novels have been translated into eighteen languages, and have been selected as ?Best Books of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. She has also been a finalist for the Orange Prize, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and has won the Los Angeles Arts Council Award, the Persian Heritage Foundation’s Award, the Simon Rockower Award, and the Phi Kappa Phi Award. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles magazine, Publishers Weekly, and the Huffington Post, among others. She writes a monthly column for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, and is a three-time finalist for an LA Press Club Award. Nahai holds a BA and a Masters degree in International Relations from UCLA, and a Master of Professional Writing from USC. She’s a former consultant for the Rand Corporation, and a frequent lecturer on the politics of pre- and postrevolutionary Iran.