What readers think of Children of the Jacaranda Tree, plus links to write your own review.

Reading Children of the Jacaranda Tree was what it must feel like to endlessly drown - in sorrow, fear, helplessness, similes and the over careful parceling out of emotions. It was like being tumbled over and under a roaring river of barely suppressed screams in a hurt-your-eyes hard light land. An overwhelming onslaught of terror, bitterness, loss, and confusion. The words wouldn't let up, wouldn't stop coming … even when I was begging them to stop.

How does one comfort children without mothers, and fathers staring into the face of death, but still surprised when it cuts them? How does one help women who sacrifice who they are for what someone else believes? The reader cannot and suffers for it.

While what this book brings to the table is real, reading page after page of beautifully written hell is very difficult to stick with. There is such a fierce push of adjectives and metaphors with no room to breathe. In reading there is no hope - except for that which is stingily and often painfully measured out by a people so suffocated, so cowed by their circumstances that I want to end their misery for them.

The stories draw everything out of the reader even when hearts glow and the human spirit attempts to rise. There is never triumph, never the knowledge that there will be healing and time for new, more gorgeous memories to be birthed in the lifetimes of the characters - even those who escape for a time. Lives either imploded or just expired and I had to live every one of them.

I am blessed to have the choice to close this book and be grateful for my mundane, even slightly boring life where I have the freedom to live where I do.

If this is the type of book a reader is drawn to, they will be in heaven.

I am always intrigued by books about the Middle-East and have enjoyed reading biographies and memoirs since my childhood. Children of the Jacaranda Tree was no exception. This book grabbed my interest on the first page, and I read 60 pages before putting it down that first time.

Delijani's writing is often lyrical, almost poetic, and although she is describing sometimes horrible events, the story is beautifully written. Delijani's descriptions of the settings are among the best I've ever read.

I would recommend this book to readers who enjoy books about the Middle-East and biographies/memoirs, and I would read other books that Delijani writes.

This multigenerational, heartbreaking story of families in post-revolutionary Iran is mesmerizing and beautifully written. Imprisonment, torture, execution, constant fear, and families torn apart are difficult to read about; and yet there is also hope and love among the family members and "proof that it's possible to reconstruct something beautiful out of devastated debris." Such a personal look into their lives motivates me to learn more about Iran. There is much here to discuss by book club members.

I found Children of the Jacaranda Tree to be a gripping story of what happened in the Iranian revolution after the Shah was over thrown. I felt that while this was a novel, the author based it on what she had really heard that had happened to either family members or friends.
It was challenging reading due to some of its emotional content, beginning with a mother going into labor in a van on the way to prison. While many of the characters in the novel lived in fear, they were determined to make a good in spite of everything.
I would recommend this book to book clubs as a good discussion book.

This is a multi-generational story about the inhumane and tragic treatment of people in post-revolutionary Iran. The presence of so many characters and so much suffering made it difficult to follow at times. I liked that the story started and ended with Neda with a spark of hope...

Although this is a deeply sad book, I did enjoy it. It reminded me, in a way, of "The Kite Runner" in that it offered insight into the lives of individuals living under a brutal, repressive regime in the Middle East. The only thing lacking in this book was a sense of what life was like prior to the beatings, imprisonments, torture and death, so we know what the revolutionaries were fighting for. I would recommend this book to book clubs, particularly those with an interest in other cultures or historical fiction.

What an amazing debut novel. Not only is the writing extraordinary, the story is one that is not well known in the west - the consequences of the ongoing Iranian revolution. It starts with the gripping story of a young woman imprisoned for speaking out against the new regime in 1983. The horror of giving birth as a prisoner serves to illuminate the methods of torture, physical and emotional. Fear is the underlying emotion of a society held hostage by its ruling class. Who can be trusted? The story goes on the describe the differences in responses of three generations to unthinkable and unpredictable methods of repression. While the story is heartbreaking in part, most of all it describes the perseverance of the human spirit determined not to be destroyed even by those will kill anyone who dares to question or speak out. Love, hope and resilience guide those who make a life in spite of the fear. Highly recommended. A beautiful book.

This book, "Children of the Jacaranda Tree" captured my heart at the first paragraph and held it hostage until the very last line. The story of the women and children of post-revolution Iran was at times, gripping and intense, and at other times sweet. I felt I was there with them, seeing and feeling what life was like for them in a city torn apart by extremists. I loved the writing. It was clear and descriptive and pulled me along to follow the journey of these women and children as they grew and matured. I highly recommend this book!