On Loving
by Lili Naghdi
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GENRE: Romance
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BLURB:
In 1972, Dr. Rose Hemmings has just finished her general surgery residency when a haunted stranger is shot in front of her in a New York City bar, and their lives become forever intertwined. And when, having been given the blessing of her adoptive father on his deathbed, Rose travels to prerevolutionary Iran to discover the past her American family kept secret from her, she finds a true Pandora's box. It is a world both foreign and familiar, in which her primary place is as the heiress to a great tribe. In Iran, Rose will find family she never dreamed of, her own people, and a man who loves her as passionately as he does the rare black roses of his garden. She will return to the United States carrying a new secret and torn between two men: the one she loves helplessly, and the one who loves her unconditionally.
Woven throughout with Persian poetry ancient and modern, On Loving is the story of one woman's lifetime of love and loss, of societal change in a nomadic people, and of overcoming personal challenges, including mental and physical health, to find true contentment. Above all, it is a story of love: its physiology, psychology and philosophy; the many forms it takes; its myths and truths; its challenges, its joys and its gifts.
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EXCERPT:
It was a beautiful late spring afternoon in Paris, and I decided to stroll down the streets of this lovely city as much as I could, to calm my nerves after that emotional talk.
Walking at a slow pace, through the charming cobbled passages and tree-lined avenues of the mesmerizing City of Love, I easily found my way to the Café de la Rotonde, my favorite café to spend time in whenever I’m in Paris. I love being in bustling Montparnasse, where Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Picasso and many others took their coffee breaks many years ago. Sitting there, I always feel that I can hear their voices or even smell in the air the tobacco they smoked. Being a huge fan of literature and art since childhood, being in that environment for even a few minutes often led me to think how it might feel to create a masterwork or to write something as captivating as they once did.
I was about to sip my coffee when a young woman sitting at the table close to mine suddenly left in a rush, forgetting her newspaper and cellphone.
“Excusez-moi, madame?” I took the newspaper and phone and followed her, hoping to catch up before she completely disappeared in the crowd, but it was too late.
Back at my seat and handed the phone to the waiter while glancing at the newspaper’s front page:
Des millions de la Reine Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari iront à la charité
“Queen Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari’s millions go to charity”
I quickly asked the waiter to let me keep the paper.
I sat on my chair, staring at the title again. I felt as if I had stumbled on a familiar face, as if I knew her intimately. I touched her photo: her beautiful eyes, her lovely smile. Everything about her was unique, even thirteen years after her death in Paris in 2001.
Then, shaking inside, I read the report.
Princess Soraya Esfandiari-Bakhtiari, born in the city of Isfahan in 1932 to an Iranian father from the well-known Bakhtiari family and his German wife, had died childless back in 2001. But now a court in Germany had ruled that because her brother, who lived there, had died before settlement was finished, her entire $6 million estate should be divided among the three charities she’d chosen — the Red Cross, a group that worked for animal protection and a disabled rights group. The article talked about her time as queen, her beauty, her stunning emerald eyes and how she’d be known as the “Princess with the sad eyes” after the last king of Iran, Mohammad-Reza Pahlavi, divorced her in 1958 for not producing an heir. Yet much of her wealth had come from jewellery he had gifted her; he loved her deeply.
Wait a second!
I quickly wiped the tears that ran down my face, trying to stay calm. But it wasn’t the deceased former queen I was mourning. It was my own past, surging up from beneath the dust that had covered it for years, that made me so emotional. The former queen’s distinctive name and her story reminded me painfully of the love I had shared in my heart for many years, the love that had changed my destiny in so many ways.
Drenched in cold sweat, I rested my forehead on the newspaper, feeling the hard table beneath it.
Life is so mystifying. After all these years … The gracious Queen Soraya … my distant relative! We shared genes, ancestors … I know … I know well the very place she was born in, I’ve been there — Isfahan, the ancient city of Isfahan, City of Roses … city of my own beautiful black roses!
I felt like I was choking and struggled to breathe. I needed fresh air. I put money on the table and rushed out of the café.
Author Interview:
What group did you hang out with in high school?
I was into sports and I loved literature and music, so my friends consisted of people who were interested in these three mostly.
What are you passionate about these days?
I’m working on my new novel and I can’t wait finishing my work daily to get home and seeing where this new story takes me to!
If you had to do your journey to getting published all over again, what would you do differently?
I think I would do the same thing but spend more time on certain parts of it if I could.
Ebook or print? And why?
Definitely print! I love the feel of holding a book in my hands and touching the pages. That is the real experience to me.
What is your favorite scene in this book?
When Rose proposes to Siyavash and asks him to marry her just after she had saved him.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Lili Naghdi is an Iranian Canadian physician who was born and raised in Tehran. She continued her education and research after moving to Canada with her husband and daughter in 1996. Today she practices family medicine in Vaughan, Ontario, with particular interests in women’s and mental health. Being a family physician gives her the privilege of connecting with patients and participating in their care with a deeper understanding of the physical, emotional and social adversities they face. Interacting with people of many different backgrounds has also provided Dr. Naghdi with the opportunity to grow as a person, a physician and an author.
Growing up in pre- and post-revolutionary Iran, Lili became fascinated by the magical realm of literature, poetry and history. She began collecting prized quotations at the young age of eight. Dr. Naghdi has written poetry and short stories in both Farsi and English, but she eventually followed William Wordsworth’s advice to “Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart,” and turned to fiction.
On Loving is her first novel. Inspired by both the ordinary people she has the honor to support and by the great literature of Persia and the world — from Hafez to Forugh Farrokhzad and from John Steinbeck to Margaret Mitchell — Dr. Naghdi passionately agrees with Boris Pasternak, whose Yuri Zhivago is a physician and patriotic poet, when he writes: “Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.”
Website: www.lilinaghdi.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44310723-on-loving?from_search=true
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/lilinaghdiauthor/posts/?ref=page_internal
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naghdil/
Amazon author page URL:
https://authorcentral.amazon.com/gp/profile
Barnes and Noble Author URL:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/reviews/books/1130591456?ean=9781999497002
Videos of her book launch:
https://youtu.be/iqMoLoKBRPI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYtdrHiWffk
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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE
Lili Naghdi will be awarding a $50 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.
Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteHello Everyone,
ReplyDeleteIt is so great joining you on another stop of my virtual tour. I’d like to thank our host and Goddess Fish Promotions for giving me this opportunity.
As you may find out from the blurb, “On Loving” is not only a love story but more importantly, it is a story about love itself, its physiology and philosophy, the many forms it takes, its myths and truths, its challenges, its joys, and its gifts.
I would like to ask everyone this question, and I’d appreciate everyone’s participation:
How do you define “LOVE” in your own words and based on your own experiences?
“On Loving” is the story of one woman’s lifetime of love and loss, and the true meaning of love, and this “true meaning” could be different for different people.
Thank you for your participation and good luck in the giveaway!
Best,
Lili Naghdi
Are any of the characters in your book based on real people?
ReplyDeleteI loved the excerpt! Thanks for sharing :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good read.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for participating. To answer Bernie's question I should say that many of On Loving's characters are based on real people and that makes it even so dear to me.
ReplyDeleteWhat was one of your favorite scenes to write for this book?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like an interesting story. I love the story of Pandora's box so this being a part of this story makes it all the better.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining us. I have more than one favorite scene in this story, but I can certainly share with you one of them which is very close to my heart. The scene In Isfahan where Siyavash, one of the main male characters, introduces Rose to the way he came to understand the concept of love and the depth of his real emotions affecting him as a man and as an individual and subsequently recites "On Loving" the poem.
ReplyDeleteThank you all for following the tour. I'd like to thank our host and Goddess Fish Promotions for this opportunity once more. Good luck in the draw!
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book, thanks for sharing
ReplyDeleteHow long after you finish a book do you start writing your next book?
ReplyDelete