The Rug Merchant (#509) is not your typical love story. Meg Mullins' protagonist Ushman is an Iranian come to New York to make his fortune in the rug business after the Islamic Revolution and a devastating earthquake have put his family's rug workshops out of business. He is beginning to make a success of things, but his wife Farak steadfastly refuses to leave his invalid mother behind in Iran and join him in New York. His unremitting loneliness leads this otherwise decent man down paths where he otherwise would never stray. A chance meeting at an airport results in a new relationship and a deeper understanding of himself.
You can't help but root for Ushman when he suffers from one betrayal after another, but you know there's not going to be a happy ending here. The tragedy is that his life goes on quietly as ever and nothing much has changed but his trust in others.
An interesting perspective on an outsider longing to be on the winning side of the American dream.
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