Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. cover art

The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.

By: Gina B. Nahai
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £17.99

Buy Now for £17.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

Dallas Noir cover art
The Maybelline Story and the Spirited Family Dynasty Behind It cover art
Hot Sur cover art
Aylin cover art
Lookaway, Lookaway cover art
Faith cover art
The Cooked Seed cover art
The Immigrants cover art
Master of the Game cover art
The Corrections cover art
2666 cover art
The Last of the Stanfields cover art
Serpentine cover art
The Japanese Lover cover art
The Neighbor cover art

Summary

From Tehran to Los Angeles, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. is a sweeping saga that tells the story of the Soleymans, an Iranian Jewish family tormented for decades by Raphael's Son, a crafty and unscrupulous financier who has futilely claimed to be an heir to the family's fortune. Forty years later in contemporary Los Angeles, Raphael's Son has nearly achieved his goal - until he suddenly disappears, presumed by many to have been murdered. The possible suspects are legion: his long-suffering wife; numerous members of the Soleyman clan exacting revenge; the scores of investors he bankrupted in a Ponzi scheme; or perhaps even his disgruntled bookkeeper and longtime confidant.

Award-winning novelist Gina B. Nahai pulls back the curtain on a close-knit community that survived centuries of persecution in Iran before settling and thriving in the United States, but now finds itself divided to the core by one of its own members. By turns hilarious and affecting, The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. examines the eternal bonds of family and community, and the lasting scars of exile.

©2014 Gina B. Nahai (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Critic reviews

"A riveting tale... Readers will be well rewarded." (Publishers Weekly)
"What results is a novel that feels more universal than anything, and an engrossing, expansive epic that charts not only thousands years of Iranian Jewish life, but the brutality of one family's survival amidst revolution and cultural upheaval." (Kirkus Reviews)
"One of Nahai's gifts is her astute observation of this community, her own, which she describes with unsparing precision." (Los Angeles Review)

What listeners say about The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.