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Description
Amity provides a window to the wreckage caused by wars--the destruction and displacement that leave pain and life-long psychological disorders, here specifically within the contexts of Yugoslavia's dissolution and Iran's revolution.Payvand, an Iranian refugee and activist, still plagued with nightmares, meets a Ragusa, a Yugoslavian refugee whose pockets are loaded with stones as she prepares to walk into the water and end her life, a life that has become intolerable since the loss of those most dear to her.Payvand listens to Ragusa's story and Ragusa promises to postpone her suicide at least until she hears Payvand's story in turn. In a novel that strives to raise awareness about the extent to which elites manipulate nations into wars, with total disregard for the lives of millions like Payvand and Ragusa, it is the warmth of personal relationships and friendships forged that are key to healing.
Contributor Notes
Nasreen Pejvack was born in Tehran, Iran where, pre-revolution, she worked as a writer and poet for an activist underground publication. She moved to Greece due to the brutal aftermath of the 1979 revolution in Iran, and soon immigrated to Canada. She studied and worked as a computer programmer in Ottawa for eight years, then moved to California and worked as a systems analyst in San Francisco. After four years she returned to Canada and now resides in Vancouver, B.C. where she transferred from the computer field to Psychology and worked with the North Vancouver school district and other organizations. Today she develops, designs, and facilitates workshops, and is working on a book of poems and short stories. Amity is her debut novel.
Editorial Review
"Apart from being a beautifully written and heart-wrenching novel, this is an important book, a timely book that needs to be read and, read now. It speaks powerfully to the devastating anguish of families ripped apart by war and conflict, of loved ones tortured and killed -- we hear the news, but it all happens outside of us, far away, and our empathy is unavoidably remote. The imagery in this novel is so vivid, I felt as if I were watching a movie, sitting with Payvand and Ragusa as they forged an unbreakable bond while retelling the stories of their shattered lives. When I finished the book, I felt as if they too were my friends, to be remembered and carried in my heart."--Lisa de Nikolits, author of A Glittering Chaos, The Witchdoctor's Bones and Beneath the Cracks She Fell
