AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

Dear AMP Community,
This is my first time connecting to this service.
I’m thrilled to announce the birth of my debut novel, ARIA.

History
A decade ago, I was trapped alone in a monsoon in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. My travel companion had departed the day before. I had run out of books to read and had already written my postcards. I was a 23-year-old medical student on holiday, a privileged Iranian-American unacquainted with suffering. As I waited for the rains to end, I had little else to do but sit with myself. The spiritually perplexing issues posed to me by my patients with unimaginably difficult lives percolated through my mind. I realized I was woefully unprepared for making sense of the maelstrom of sickness and dying that I was witnessing in the clinical setting. I began to write. A novel was born, the story of how great loss might manifest in the context of a comfortable US life. I had seen grief take a variety of forms in different parts of the world. This seemed worthy of further exploration. I kept writing after my return from Indonesia, stealing quiet moments in the interstices of medical work. Finally—for publication is a lesson in delayed gratification and patience—my writing is publicly accessible. My novel, Aria, is now in bookstores, is available on amazon.com worldwide, and is being translated into five languages.

Aria
Published by Harcourt. Available now.
Jasmine is a cancer specialist and single mother in Seattle, long estranged from her Iranian parents and heritage. When faced with the sudden accidental death of Aria, her five-year-old daughter, she finds little solace in the healing advice she’s prescribed to her dying patients and their families. Despite the loving support of her best friend Dot, a “little person” studying the role of dwarves in ancient Egypt, and her partner Alexander, a retired war correspondent, Jasmine is flattened by grief. Lacking religious scaffolding or comforting rituals, Jasmine abandons her life in exchange for a one-way ticket around the world.

Finding Aria
You can learn more about Aria on my website: www.nassimassefi.com

If you would like to buy a copy of the book, go to your local bookseller. If you can’t find it, ask the bookseller to order you a copy. If you prefer to order your books online (any book, it doesn’t have to be Aria), please access Amazon.com or Powell’s by clicking on their icon on my website (http://nassimassefi.com/books.aspx), and I will receive up to 8% of sales, which I will donate to non-profits related to the themes in Aria. If book sales result in any royalties for me, I will also donate a percentage to these non-profit causes. If you happen to like my book, I’d very much appreciate a review on Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and/or Powell’s sites. Customer reviews really do make a difference.

Book Tour and Book Clubs
For those of you living on North American coasts, I will be doing a book tour starting in May (see http://nassimassefi.com/readings.aspx for details of time and location).

WEST COAST READINGS:
Portland reading will be May 10 at Powell’s. Los Angeles events will start with a reading at Dutton’s in Brentwood on May 21, a May 22 signing at Ketab in Westwood, and a May 23 Global Health lecture at the National Academies of Sciences in Irvine. On May 30, I will be at Black Oak Books in Berkeley and May 31 at Book Passage in Marin (Corte Madera store). East Coast Book Tour (Boston, New York, Connecticut, and DC) will be scheduled in September. For those of you at universities or members of organizations with invited speakers, I’d be happy to fit in a talk, book signing, or visit during my travels. A first-time novelist usually does not attract many audience members at readings. I would be grateful if you brought your friends to my readings and/or forwarded this message to the book lovers in your lives.

Aria is particularly well suited to women’s book clubs. As a special bonus to people on AMP, I will happily call in to your book group discussion for up to 30 minutes (assuming my travel schedule allows) or answer your book club’s questions via email.

Thanks so much for your support.

Best wishes for a lovely spring, Nassim
www.nassimassefi.com