Shelf Life
Behind Palace Walls
A tale of loyalty, love and power in the royal court of 16th-century Iran
Iran,1576.
The shah has just died under mysterious circumstances, and there is no apparent heir. Pari Kahn Khanoom, a powerful princess, takes charge until her brother journeys back to the kingdom and assumes the throne; but when he returns, he is not the generous and jovial brother Pari remembers. Soon she falls into disfavor in the royal court, and when the new shah begins ordering executions, danger.
In her second novel, "Equal of the Sun" (Scribner, '12), Anita Amirrezvani (M.F.A., '09) imagines the decisions that Pari, a real figure in the Safavi dynasty, might have made and the life she might have lived. Narrated by Javaher, her trusted servant, it is a story of power struggles, epic battles and steamy love affairs as well as a history lesson about the role of women in the ancient Muslim world.
Amirrezvani's fans will feel silk carpets under foot, taste black tea and delight in the language of old Iran in this new tale, one every bit as intriguing as her internationally best-selling debut, "The Blood of Flowers."
Lunch Bucket Paradise: A True-Life Novel
Heyday Books
At once a coming-of-age story and a commentary on the American Dream, this trip through a bluecollar suburb of Oakland in the 1960s is a delightful one thanks
to a masterful tour guide, Fred Setterberg (M.A., '03). Sections of the book have earned accolades from The Florida Review, Literal Latte and Solstice Literary Magazine.
Without
Shearsman Books
When Professor and Chair of Creative Writing Maxine Chernoff's son described his assignment in art class -- draw the negative space around a chair -- she found inspiration for a new book. The high-impact poems in her latest collection imagine worlds in which beauty, sound, truth or other concepts have been removed. "Each one pierces," writes Diana Rosinus of Fourteen Hills.
The Wolf Gift
Knopf
Who says that transforming into a werewolf has to be an unpleasant experience? Not Anne Rice (B.A., '64; M.A., '72). In her new book, growing fur, fangs and claws and eliminating your enemies is a thrill. A review in The Wall Street Journal calls this "vintage Anne Rice -- a lushly written, gothic, violent, gory, metaphysical tale."
Writing in Pictures: Screenwriting Made (Mostly) Painless
Vintage
In this step-by-step guide, Associate Professor of Cinema Joseph McBride encourages aspiring screenwriters to focus on the basics of the craft and start with literary adaptation before attempting to create an original story. Film critic Leonard Maltin found the book also "makes for good reading, even if you have
no intention of trying to write a screenplay."
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