"Escaping persecution and destruction during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Zebra's parents flee their home in Iran, and her father immediately begins her education by reciting quotations of famous writers and thinkers, instilling in her a love of literature. Her family is one of readers; their family crest is inscribed with three As for autodidacts, atheists, and anarchists. Unfortunately, Zebra becomes an orphan at a relatively early age, and she begins a quixotic search for the meaning of life. Arriving in Barcelona, Spain, she meets Ludovico Bembo, with whom she has a magnetic connection. After a brief time of living together, he declares his love for her, but Zebra is unable to reciprocate. As she walks around Barcelona, whose art and architecture have special meaning for her, she soon realizes that the greatest revenge in life is to feel tremendous love and to persist and prevail. VERDICT: This fierce meditation, a heady review of literature and philosophy as well as a love story, is a tour de force from the author of Fra Keeler that many will read and reread."
—LIBRARY JOURNAL