Forgiving Ararat by Gita Nazareth

[Lesley Henton]

Hi, I'd like to recommend "Forgiving Ararat", a supernatural thriller and murder mystery. It's about a female lawyer that dies and goes to a place between Heaven and Hell called Shemaya. There she meets Luas, who tells her she is to join his elite team of lawyers who defend souls in the Final Judgment. She sees the lives of these people through their own eyes, and in the process makes connections that lead her to solve her own murder. There's spooky supernatural elements, religious debate and lots of suspense.

[Wendi Oliveros]

You're right about Forgiving Ararat. I loved it too. I really liked how Ms. Nazareth described the afterlife so vividly that I felt like I was there. Tangible images such as the four seasons occurring simultaneously in Nana’s backyard make the afterlife picturesque and sometimes grotesque as Ms. Nazareth vividly describes the dead arriving at Shemaya Station as they looked when taking their last breath. Forgiving Ararat is realistic fiction that makes you reexamine your conscience.

[Stella PC Tran]

Likewise, I've read and loved Forgiving Ararat. For a first publication, this novel left me pondering and questioning long after the last pages, and I’d definitely recommend this to anyone who’s looking for an intelligent read speckled with vivid imagination.

What stood out for me was Nazareth's idea of forgiveness. I especially liked how she used death as a platform to discuss forgiveness and strengthened the idea. For me, no matter what wrong and bad a man has done, as long as one is willing to look through the man's eyes, one will always see reason and learn to forgive, even more so in death.