The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.

FINALIST FOR THE JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL’S J.J. GREENBERG MEMORIAL AWARD
LONGLISTED FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

Part-murder mystery and part-family saga, this dramatic and often hilarious novel explores the history of Los Angeles's Iranian-Jewish community.

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 contemporary 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-winning novelist Gina B. 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, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. examines the eternal bonds of family and community, and the lasting scars of exile.

"Lyrical, shrewd, and daring novelist Nahai . . . writes with acute emotional and nearly anthropological perception, laser-wit, and deep compassion. . . . With touches of magic realism, extraordinary characters, and a spiraling, multigenerational plot involving fraud, a murder mystery, epic suffering, heroic generosity, women's struggle for freedom, and the clash between East and West, Nahai's mythic, tragic, often beautiful immigrant family saga illuminates timeless questions of prejudice, trauma, inheritance, loyalty, and love." —Booklist, Starred Review

"A riveting tale. . . . Readers will be well rewarded." —Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. is a masterpiece that is simultaneously poetic in its unfurling, trans-generational plot, and brutally to the point in the style of a hard-boiled crime novel . . . This is a book you should not miss." —San Francisco Book Review

“A wide-ranging, page-turning, magical realist, multigenerational family saga and Iranian-Jewish-American immigration tale enveloped in a murder mystery . . . it both entertains and instructs, and its differing genres seem more complimentary than conflicting.” —New York Journal of Books

“One of the many pleasures of this sprawling, multigenerational story is the way it transcends the specifics of the Iranian diaspora with insights that could apply to anyone.” LA Weekly

“Prose that mixes the magical realism of Gabriel García Márquez with the hard-boiled, Los Angeles based detective fiction of Raymond Chandler . . . [Nahai] knows first-hand the community she describes, and she depicts her characters with a loving if sometimes amused eye. This novel feels personal, which makes the story all the more compelling. This is a magic carpet ride you'll want to take.” —The New York Jewish Week

“A bold, brave novel . . . as surprising as it is satisfying. . . . Captivating.” —Forbes

“Intoxicating . . . And Nahai brings a sharp social satirist's eye to all of post-millennial multi-cultural L.A.” San Diego Jewish World

“Nahai has crafted a story that will move you with its exploration of the bonds that tie a family together or tear it asunder.” —San Diego Jewish Journal

“One of Nahai's gifts is her astute observation of this community, her own, which she describes with unsparing precision.” —Los Angeles Review of Books

“What results is a novel that feels more universal than anything, and an engrossing, expansive epic that charts not only thousands years of Iranian Jewish life, but the brutality of one family's survival amidst revolution and cultural upheaval.” Kirkus Reviews, Feature on Gina B. Nahai