“Bone Worship dares to explore the perilous intersection of familial and cultural mysteries, balancing the pull of tradition, the promise of the future, and all the possibilities in between.” The Cherokee County Public Library will be hosting a reception for Gaffney native, Elizabeth Eslami in honor of her first published, best selling novel, “Bone Worship”. The reception/book signing will be held in the large conference room from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, June 23.

She grew up in Gaffney and has lived in New York, New Mexico, Montana and Maryland. She received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence and her M.F.A from Warren Wilson College.

In her work, Eslami explores cultural tensions and the complexities of family bonds walking a fine line between dark humor and lyricism. Her writing has been described as “Nabakovian.”

Eslami’s writing has appeared in over a dozen literary journals and magazines in the United States and abroad, including The G.W. Review, Bat City Review, The Minnesota Review, The Millions, and Crab Orchard Review, among others. Bone Worship, her first novel, has been called “wildly original” by Joan Silber and “a treasure” by David Haynes, and Janet Peery calls Eslami a writer of “uncommon wit and depth.” She’s currently a regular contributor at The Nervous Breakdown.

ESLAMI She currently lives in Oregon with her husband Lyle Dechant and their dog, Denali. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and a second book.

Refreshments will be served and a minimal number of books will be available for purchase.

Please help us welcome this vibrant and compelling talent.

ABOUT THE BOOK...

A stunning debut from Iranian-American author Elizabeth Eslami, Bone Worship dares to explore the perilous intersection of familial and cultural mysteries, balancing the pull of tradition, the promise of the future, and all the possibilities in between.

Jasmine Fahroodhi sometimes worries she has a brain disorder.

She doesn’t recognize her parents, and more startlingly, she doesn’t recognize herself.

Half Iranian and half American, Jasmine doesn’t seem to feel at home anywhere. Professors marvel over an Iranian heritage she knows nothing about, while her American dates ask if her Iranian father is a terrorist.

She has no friends outside of the laboratory, half of her relatives are missing from the family tree, and the only man she’s ever had a substantial relationship with is the mechanical phone voice asking her for a quarter.

An ace student of zoology at the University of Chicago, Jasmine flunks out just shy of graduation after a disastrous romance, and returns home to live with her parents.

Suddenly away from the stimulation of the city, she finds herself back in tiny Arrowhead, Ga., with no idea where her life is headed.

Her enigmatic Iranian father and prim American mother have at least one idea: hastegar, an arranged marriage.

Though repulsed by this idea, Jasmine lets her parents believe that she will go along with it, telling herself that it is just a matter of time until she can figure out how to proceed with her life.

Ever the student, Jasmine turns her scientific gaze on her father, Yusef, methodically cataloguing the seven things she knows about him. In vividly imagined stories, inconsistent and incomplete, she immerses herself in the mysteries surrounding him, such as why he once pushed his cousin off of a wall, and how he came to dine on camel eyes as a child. “It is terrifying to realize that I know nothing about him,” she muses. “I could be turning into him, and I wouldn’t even know it.”

As her stories of Iran begin to resonate with her experience under her parents’ roof, she performs small acts of rebellion, cutting her hair and making desultory attempts at employment, fumbling toward an identity apart from two parents she’s never understood.

All the while, Jasmine, a virgin, walks a tightrope, simultaneously dodging the impending marriage while also intrigued by the possibility of real love. Finally opening herself up to the mysteries of life and family, Jasmine ultimately discovers the truth about her father, and an even more evasive figure – herself – in this haunting and lyrical debut novel.