Fabulous Fiction Firsts #15

Fri, 04/14/2006 - 3:55pm by muffy

“Unexpected, unrehearsed, unconventional” – that’s how Meg Mullins describes the relationships between the main characters in her sparkling debut novel.

At the center of the story is Iranian Ushman Khan, The Rug Merchant. Middle-aged, and feeling abandoned by a wife who refuses to join him in New York, he runs a small rug store on Madison Avenue by day and endures a solitary existence. A chance meeting with a beautiful Barnard student during his nocturnal wanderings at JFK, blossoms into a serious affair.

Then, there is wealthy and demanding socialite Mrs. Roberts - one of his best customers, who seems to be reaching out to Ushman in the most unexpected way.

A quiet and complex novel of “many extraordinary pleasures”, Mullins's auspiciously wonderful debut is not to be missed. My bet is you will be hand-selling it to your friends. Reviews.