Stevie‘s review of Scent of Butterflies by Dora Levy Mossanen
Jewish Women’s Fiction published by Sourcebooks Landmark 07 Jan 14
Soraya, a Jewish Iranian woman from a rich and privileged background, is deeply in love with Aziz, her husband of twenty years. Together they have lived through their country’s political upheavals, with the support of Soraya’s parents, and that of her grandmother who once created jewellery for the Shah. Soraya is also devoted to her best friend Parvaneh, whose name means butterfly, and has supported her through a less happy marriage. But then Soraya sees her husband and best friend in bed together, and she knows she will never be able to forgive them, and equally that she will never be able to remain in her home country so long as they are both there as well. So she plots her revenge…
An accomplished photographer, Soraya tells her husband that she has won a prestigious contract in the USA and persuades him to sign the papers that will let her leave Iran by herself. But it’s all a lie. There’s no contract, and she has no plans to return. Instead she intends to photograph, and have sex with, as many beautiful men as she can find – her revenge for her husband’s infidelity – and to also find a way to punish her best friend for that act of betrayal. The first part of her plan works well – the men Soraya meets are happy to be photographed, and many want to go to bed with her, although she finds casual infidelity a lot more difficult to go through with than she’d been expecting.
Meanwhile, Soraya has found a house with an exotic garden full of butterflies and with a giant poisonous plant as its centre piece. She sets out to study and trap as many butterflies as possible, while plotting her detailed revenge on the human butterfly, Parvaneh. When Parvaneh and Aziz visit, Soraya’s plans seem about to come to fruition, but then she learns that what she saw on the day that she decided to leave Iran was far from the entire story.
A wonderful book full of lyrical descriptions that showed me worlds I’d never considered in great detail before (in spite of having read Persepolis, as well as giving me a very different glimpse into the lives of wealthy West Coast Americans than we normally see). I find Soraya a difficult character to get along with for any length of time, but that won’t stop me looking out for more of the author’s work.
Grade: B
Summary:
A novel singed by the flavors of Tehran, imbued with the Iranian roots of Persepolis and the culture clash of Rooftops of Tehran, this is a striking, nuanced story of a woman caught between two worlds, from the bestselling author of Harem, Courtesan, and The Last Romanov.
A Love So Deep Can Forever Scar the Soul
Such audacity she has, Soraya, a woman who dares to break free of the diamond-studded leash of her culture. A woman who refuses to accept the devastating betrayal her husband has perpetrated. A woman who refuses to forgive her best friend.
Soraya turns her back on Iran, fleeing to America to plot her intricate revenge. The Shah has fallen, her country is in turmoil, her marriage has crumbled, and she is unraveling. The cruel and intimate blow her husband has dealt her awakens an obsessive streak that explodes in the heated world of Los Angeles.
Yet the secret Soraya discovers proves far more devastating than anything she had imagined, unleashing a whirlwind of unexpected events that will leave the reader breathless.
Read an excerpt.
