A unique love story revealing deep moral truths about human civilization
Don’t mistake this book as an ordinary tale of romance. It is about a love story all right, but the story is emotional, graphic and brutal. There is danger and pathos lurking all around. I must say that I have never read a love story like this before. Much of it is essentially set in ancient Persia. The very beginning of the girl’s journey is both pitiable as well as intriguing – the imagery constructed by this passage indicates a clear and present danger which might be looming around her:
“I—I see a girl. Yes, yes. She must be around thirteen or fourteen maybe. She’s walking as fast as she can across hard-packed sand. She’s not supposed to be out here alone in the dark. If her father or one of his men catches her, they’ll turn her back for sure. She’s headed for the trees up ahead. Finally, she’s reached them … she’s looking all around her … now she’s slipping into their shadows …”
On the other hand, Ayisha’s true love for Zabi is described quite succinctly in this passage:
Ayisha continued undeterred, “Ammi, where would I be without Zabi? How could I live without him? For as long as I can remember, he’s been my best friend. I can’t imagine even breathing without Zabi in my life. No.”
Much as I liked Ayisha and Zabi’s tale, I didn’t quite like the switch to the modern period. I wish the author had made the story strictly about Ayisha and her love and erased the hypnotherapy session between Sarah and her shrink Dr. Tremaine altogether; the back and forth switch between two different periods of time was a tad irritating and serves little purpose (to me anyways); it took me some time to get myself adjusted to that. However, strictly on the basis of Ayisha’s emotional and challenging love affair I would rate it four stars. The writing style is pretty good, I could not spot any typos or grammatical mistakes and the dialogs really seem to resonate quite well with the character’s emotion. The moral of the story is that for us humans, harboring feelings of hatred and vengeance comes across as an easier choice over bestowing love and forgiveness upon others, as this passage elucidates:
She looked down to see her ankle bound once more by the iron chain. “I left that chain behind in the courtyard. Who put it back on me?”
“You did. When you thought again about how many people hurt you and how much you wanted to hurt them back. You bound yourself to them once more even now in your death. It’s just as I told you when we were in the palace together. When you condemn your enemies, you also condemn yourself. The only way out for you is forgiveness. If you don’t forgive your enemies now, they will drag you off the Chinawad Bridge into the depths of hell. And they will keep you there until you choose to let them go.”
The ending of their love story truly made me emotional. Overall I highly recommend it for lovers of fantasy and romance books alike. Just don’t let the time travel thing bother you and you would enjoy it well.