An epic that not only traces the story of a doomed pair but also follows the tumultuous history of Iran from 1928 to 1981.
Interesting and [a] very different novel of modern Persia.
Engrossing, elegantly told story....A humanizing perspective on a history too many Americans know only through authoritarian stereotypes.
Booklist, (American Library Association) - Whitney Scott
[An] epic first novel....Absorbing....[A] haunting story.
Q Syndicate, (Content For Gay Publications) - Richard Labonte
The narrative progresses at a fast pace as the essence of the exotic setting unfolds.
Dallas Voice - Robert Ross
Interesting and [a] very different novel of modern Persia.
Mostlyfiction.Com - Jana Kraus
The Quince Seed Potion is a daring and unique novel...[it] is a book important for our times, a tale that will remind us that tradition is not so easily expunged by modern logic.
A vigorous, raunchy tale spanning fifty turbulent years of Iranian history.
...a raw and beguiling epic that offers up an intimate view of a world still unknown to most.
A deeply affecting novel...And Mort Baharloo, in writing his story, definitely shows that he knows more than most of us.
...powerfully captures the dilemma of being caught between one's individual desire and that of tradition...an honest, unsparing, poignant account of a world at once cruel and beautiful.
This is a novel that is simultaneously exotic and familiar, exotic in terms of locale and people but familiar in terms of the trials and tribulations of human everywhere.
...a fascinating tale of loyalty and servitude...told in a lush and descriptive language and in a naturalistic style.
The unswerving loyalty of an indentured servant sold to a family of khans in 1928 is the prism through which Morteza Baharloo explores the 20th-century history of Iran in The Quince Seed Potion. Sarveali knows no other life than the one he leads as the personal slave of Teimour Khan, a spoiled, handsome young aristocrat. Neither marriage nor opium addiction can distract Sarveali from his duties; it's only death and the Iranian revolution that separate him from the family he reveres at the end of this vivid, uneven first novel. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
First-time Iranian author Baharloo (Houston, Texas-based) depicts the harried life of an indentured servant to a once-powerful family who lose everything as Iran's rulers assert their will. Spanning the seminal years from 1928 to 1981, the story begins with the birth of Sarveali in 1928. Soon an orphan, Sarveali, a runt of a boy, is indentured by his uncle Barat-Ali at the age of six to the Great Khan of the Shirlu dynasty. Barat-Ali is greedy, unscrupulous, and abusive, not only insisting that Sarveali's wages be paid to him, but also raping him before depositing him at the Khans' great estate in the mountains. There, Sarveali becomes the servant of the Khans' second son, Teimour, a moody and handsome lad to whom Sarveali is soon passionately attached. The estate, which Baharloo luminously describes, is still run on feudal lines: there are zebra hunts, feasts, and the making of the famous quince preserves after first extracting the seeds. The Khans are all powerful and prodigal in their appetites, but Iran is changing, and the old ways are doomed. In the 1940s, when Reza Shah organizes a military attack on all the Khans, Sarveali's Khan is arrested and dies in prison, the property is ransacked, and eldest son Changiz becomes head of the family. The Khans enjoy a brief reprieve after Reza Shah is deposed, but Reza Shah's son, who succeeds him, implements land reforms that drastically reduce their land-holdings. As the Khans' fortunes decline and Teimour moves abroad, Sarveali is forced to marry his cousin Yazgulu, but, in love with Teimour, he's unable to consummate his marriage. Ashamed of his impotence and angered by Yazgulu's flagrant adulteries, he kills her in a drunken rage. Inprison, he becomes an opium addict, but the Khans need him, and, released from prison, he remains loyal as the Shah is succeeded by the Mullahs, and Teimour comes home to die. On balance, more a vivid portrait than gripping narrative. Author tour. Agent: Amy Rennert
