The Twisted Path Home, Fae Bidgoli ~ Book Review

When I first read a short synopsis of The Twisted Path Home I knew that this would be a perfect book for me. But without giving you what I knew of the book before I read it, I'd like to talk a bit about the experience I had while reading this novel.

First of all, I'd never heard of the author before, but something about Fae Bidgoli tugged at me. I don't know if it was her beautiful name, or the small bio of her that was provided to me. Fae herself grew up in a small Iranian village, so I knew that her story would come from the heart, despite it being a fictional book.

The Twisted Path Home tells the story of a woman named Arezoo who is experiencing horrible nightmares. Arezoo is married to Robert as our story begins, and Robert is a kind, caring and supportive man. The complete opposite of her first husband. We meet Arezoo as she begins therapy to help her understand these nightmares, and we walk through her relationship with her doctor as he tries to help her come to terms with her own history, and figure out what haunts her so. 


The story opens up with a few pages about a young girl named Sogand. Sogand is quickly married off as a child bride to a horrible man named Homayoon. We are privy to her fear as she is forced into marriage, and the horrors of her wedding night. Sogand's story does not resurface for some time, and yet we feel her with us as we turn each page. It's not hard to begin guessing at possible connections between her and Arezoo. It's easy to slip and assume we know how they are intertwined. And yet, the book continues to divulge more and more information.

We learn and grow with Arezoo. We learn what happened to Sogand. And we learn a lot about the abusive and traumatic relationships so many young women are forced into at an early age, simply because of their culture and their family law.

The story develops with each revelation and we learn of more connections between Sogand and Arezoo. The twists and turns ultimately surprised me, despite my early assumptions of what the ties were between the two. And fortunately for the reader, the story does not just end there. There are so many characters impacted by each new piece of information, and we continue to watch the impact and change that occurs for Arezoo and her entire family.

I truly enjoyed this book. I might not have picked it up off of the shelf but I am so glad I decided to read and review it. I really think that it's an important work of writing to bring forth the truth about cultural abuse and what happens that many of us have no idea or information about. So while this was, indeed, just a "story," there is so much more to it than that.

** I was not compensated in any way for this review. The opinions are completely my own. I was provided with a copy of this book to facilitate my review.  There are affiliate links in this post. **

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