A dazzling feat of scholarship…the book restores Rumi to the glories and hardships of his momentous age.” — Washington Post
“Profound, important….flows with the ease of good fiction…. Rumi’s Secret offers an expanded view of the 13th – century poet.” — Christian Science Monitor
“Gooch’s biography brings the political and intellectual tumult of the early medieval era to life, producing vivid characters and memorable portraits of urban experience…a sensitive and passionate introduction.” — New York Times Book Review
“A biography that is painstaking enough to withstand scholarly scrutiny without losing the compelling storyline.” — Lion’s Roar
“Their friendship transformed Rumi’s life, and transports this biography into an exquisite, joyous realm.” — New Yorker
“Brad Gooch brilliantly pins both the life of the spirit and the magic of the poet to the page in this intimate, entrancing, sumptuous biography. Flutes play, goldsmiths hammer, silver bells jingle in camel ears and Rumi’s lush music washes over the reader. “Everyone is born once. I have been born many times,” wrote the Persian poet. Never before like this.” — Stacy Schiff, Author of The Witches and Cleopatra
“Extraordinary… Brad Gooch’s fine, searching biography, “Rumi’s Secret,” will fascinate his subject’s many admirers. We will never fully know Rumi, but thanks to Mr. Gooch, we know him better.” — The Wall Street Journal
“An excellent and accessible introduction to the profound and generous mystical vision of Rumi that will give Western readers a much needed insight into the true spirituality of Islam.” — Karen Armstrong, Author of A History of God and Muhammad
“Rumi’s life in this telling is as compelling as his poetry. Rumi’s Secret is a beautiful and relevant book.” — Reza Aslan, author of No god but God and Zealot
“…a wondrous groundbreaking book….Never have we known Rumi this intimately or understood the life behind the verse so well. Brad Gooch moves elegantly between storytelling, the psychologies of relationships, and evocative criticism….His graceful prose is charged with luminous details: the sounds, the sights, the very feel of these worlds, and how they generated Rumi’s ecstatic yet practical verse. With Rumi’s Secret, Gooch has not only set another high-water mark in literary biography, he has given the fullness of Rumi to us at a moment when we need him more than ever.” — Harvard Review
“Brad Gooch unfolds the secret of Rumi’s art, mapping the transformation of Rumi’s life-experiences into his poems. Friendship, poetry, and spirituality intertwine into a felt experience for readers. Before we know it, Rumi has caught us up in his own experience and we are changed.” — Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, chairman of The Cordoba Initiative
“This is a monumental book, an illumination, an achievement worthy of Rumi’s remarkable journey and lasting influence. May it dance its way to a wide audience, changing lives and bridging cultures, as Mevlana himself did.” — Eboo Patel, author of Acts of Faith
“Suffice it to say, it’s Brad Gooch who holds the key to Rumi’s Secret.” — Vanity Fair: Hot Type
“In these deeply divisive times, it matters more than ever to deepen our understanding of the roots of sacred Islam, and this deeply researched and highly literary biography of Rumi, the 13th -century Persian poet and Sufi mystic, is at once prescriptive and enlivening.” — Chicago Tribune
Rumi’s life in this telling is as compelling as his poetry. Rumi’s Secret is a beautiful and relevant book.
Extraordinary… Brad Gooch’s fine, searching biography, “Rumi’s Secret,” will fascinate his subject’s many admirers. We will never fully know Rumi, but thanks to Mr. Gooch, we know him better.
Their friendship transformed Rumi’s life, and transports this biography into an exquisite, joyous realm.
A dazzling feat of scholarship…the book restores Rumi to the glories and hardships of his momentous age.
Brad Gooch brilliantly pins both the life of the spirit and the magic of the poet to the page in this intimate, entrancing, sumptuous biography. Flutes play, goldsmiths hammer, silver bells jingle in camel ears and Rumi’s lush music washes over the reader. “Everyone is born once. I have been born many times,” wrote the Persian poet. Never before like this.
Their friendship transformed Rumi’s life, and transports this biography into an exquisite, joyous realm.
A dazzling feat of scholarship…the book restores Rumi to the glories and hardships of his momentous age.
In these deeply divisive times, it matters more than ever to deepen our understanding of the roots of sacred Islam, and this deeply researched and highly literary biography of Rumi, the 13th -century Persian poet and Sufi mystic, is at once prescriptive and enlivening.
This is a monumental book, an illumination, an achievement worthy of Rumi’s remarkable journey and lasting influence. May it dance its way to a wide audience, changing lives and bridging cultures, as Mevlana himself did.
In these deeply divisive times, it matters more than ever to deepen our understanding of the roots of sacred Islam, and this deeply researched and highly literary biography of Rumi, the 13th -century Persian poet and Sufi mystic, is at once prescriptive and enlivening.
“Brad Gooch is the foremost biographer of flamingly original artists who preach the gospel of love, whether fleshly or divine. To his magnificent lives of Frank O’Hara and Flannery O’Connor, he now adds that of the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi…..Deftly situating Rumi in the crosscurrents of Persian, Arab, Turkic, and Mongol history, Gooch gives us an indelible portrait of this mystic so crucial to Christians, Muslims, Jews, and modern-day searchers after meaning.
Gooch’s biography brings the political and intellectual tumult of the early medieval era to life, producing vivid characters and memorable portraits of urban experience ….a sensitive and passionate introduction.
The New York Times Book Review
Translating many of Rumi’s poems with irresistible grace, Brad Gooch has written an unforgettable biography of the thirteenth-century Persian mystic, preacher, sheikh, father, seer and above all ecstatic poet whose verses, in Gooch’s hands, sing a religion of love through time and place. Compassionate, learned, and lyrical, Brad Gooch’s Rumi’s Secret is a book to be savored, its secrets long treasured. It helps teach us, now, how to live.
A dazzling feat of scholarship…the book restores Rumi to the glories and hardships of his momentous age.
Their friendship transformed Rumi’s life, and transports this biography into an exquisite, joyous realm.
Brad Gooch’s Rumi’s Secret has been a journey of delight for me. Having loved various translations of Rumi’s poems over the years, knowing his amazing story of meeting Shams of Tabriz, and of his long and productive life, living true love in the midst of a world in catastrophic crisis, I still had no real sense of who he is. Now Rumi’s Secret has remedied that situation. Rumi comes to life, his era comes to life, his courage, kindness, humanness, and grace overflows in this wonderful book.
…Having loved various translations of Rumi’s poems over the years…I still had no read sense of who he is. Now, Rumi’s Secret has remedied that situation. Rumi comes to life, his era comes to life, his courage, kindness, humanness, and grace overflows in this wonderful book.
…[A]n imaginative biography of 13th Century Sufi poet, Rumi…Reading more like a novel and sprinkled with poems, the book will delight those looking for an accessible treatment on the legendary Muslim poet.
So fresh. Hundreds of years after the poet’s demise, his works are perennial source of inspiration for poetry, music, stories and dance written and performed in many languages.
Gooch traces Rumi’s steps as his family migrated from Vakhsh, in present day Tajikistan, where he was born in 1207, to Samarkand and to Syria, and to Konya, in Turkey, where Rumi spent the last 50 years of his life. His effort bears fruit.
Rumi’s Secret: The Life of the Sufi Poet of Love offers historical context and illuminates the ways in which Rumi’s otherworldly work was shaped by remarkable reality…Gooch’s account adds a human touch to a man who appears larger than life.
More than seven centuries after his death, Rumi’s poetry still has the capacity to fascinate his readers… In Rumi’s Secret, the author Brad Gooch seeks to give modern readers a glimpse into Rumi’s life by studying the poet’s travels and his spiritual formation.
Suffice it to say, it’s Brad Gooch who holds the key to Rumi’s Secret.
Gooch examine[s] why a fairly obscure medieval poet should have such a hold on contemporary Western cultures.
Extraordinary… Brad Gooch’s fine, searching biography, “Rumi’s Secret,” will fascinate his subject’s many admirers. We will never fully know Rumi, but thanks to Mr. Gooch, we know him better.
[Gooch] braves his own translations, and situates Rumi in the broader context of his time and place: a moment of vast creative productivity in the medieval Islamic world, where Sufis were pushing the boundaries of orthodoxy…Gooch's biography brings the political and intellectual tumult of the early medieval era to life, producing vivid characters out of the reigning Seljuk sultans and memorable portraits of urban experience.
The New York Times Book Review - Azadeh Moaveni
10/03/2016 In sometimes poetic, though sometimes prosaic and workmanlike, prose, Gooch (Smash Cut) provides an in-depth biography of Rumi, the great Sufi poet. He begins the book as he is retracing Rumi’s footsteps in Aleppo in 2011, just before the outbreak of civil war, and is told by a resident that, “like your American poet Whitman,” Rumi was a great poet because he never revealed his secret. Drawing deeply on Rumi’s own writing, Gooch clearly recreates the life and times of this 13th-century mystic. Born on September 30, 1207, in present-day Tajikistan, Rumi soon showed his life would not be an ordinary one: when he was just five years old he reported seeing angels. His family set out on the road when he was still young, and Rumi met a pivotal influence, the poet Attar. As he grew in poetic stature, Rumi encountered the mystic Shams of Tabriz, who became a venerated teacher and taught Rumi the religion of the heart that became his own hallmark. In a close reading of Rumi’s poetry, Gooch quotes two lines to reveal the titular secret: “explanations make many things clear/but only love is clear in silence.” Gooch’s biography can be plodding, but the story it tells is fascinating enough to compel readers to pick up Rumi’s poetry and discover his secret for themselves. Agent: Joy Harris, Joy Harris Literary Agency. (Jan.)
…a wondrous groundbreaking book….Never have we known Rumi this intimately or understood the life behind the verse so well. Brad Gooch moves elegantly between storytelling, the psychologies of relationships, and evocative criticism….His graceful prose is charged with luminous details: the sounds, the sights, the very feel of these worlds, and how they generated Rumi’s ecstatic yet practical verse. With Rumi’s Secret, Gooch has not only set another high-water mark in literary biography, he has given the fullness of Rumi to us at a moment when we need him more than ever.
Gooch’s biography brings the political and intellectual tumult of the early medieval era to life, producing vivid characters and memorable portraits of urban experience…a sensitive and passionate introduction.
New York Times Book Review
Profound, important….flows with the ease of good fiction…. Rumi’s Secret offers an expanded view of the 13th – century poet.
Christian Science Monitor
An excellent and accessible introduction to the profound and generous mystical vision of Rumi that will give Western readers a much needed insight into the true spirituality of Islam.
A biography that is painstaking enough to withstand scholarly scrutiny without losing the compelling storyline.
Brad Gooch unfolds the secret of Rumi’s art, mapping the transformation of Rumi’s life-experiences into his poems. Friendship, poetry, and spirituality intertwine into a felt experience for readers. Before we know it, Rumi has caught us up in his own experience and we are changed.
Suffice it to say, it’s Brad Gooch who holds the key to Rumi’s Secret.
12/01/2016 Often called the greatest mystical poet of any age, 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi master Rumi has been appreciated for centuries beyond the confines of his birthplace. Gooch (English, William Paterson Univ.; Flannery) retraces the life and times of Rumi by highlighting important benchmark events in his life and by revisiting locations in central and western Asia where he traveled and lived. Rumi's story is full of mystery and meaning, or as Gooch puts it, full of secrets—personal, poetic, and theological: "Like Whitman, or like Shakespeare, he never tells his secret." Drawing loosely on past works on Rumi, this passionate and compelling biography provides a richness of context through which one can understand the life of the Sufi mystic from new and colorful angles. For many of his facts, the author relies on Franklin D. Lewis's Rumi: Past and Present, East and West. Gooch immersed himself in studying Rumi, taking intensive Persian courses, traveling 2,500 miles retracing the map of the poet's life, and began translating him in collaboration with an Iranian American writer. VERDICT Recommended for all libraries as well as anyone with more than a passing interest in Rumi and Sufi poetry.—Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY
2016-10-06 An appreciative biography of the 13th-century Persian poet, teacher, and mystic.In researching the life of Rumi (1207-1273), Gooch (English/William Paterson Univ.; Smash Cut: A Memoir of Howard and Art and the ’70s and the ’80s, 2015, etc.) traced the poet’s steps through the Middle East, immersed himself in scholarship, and, impressively, spent years learning Persian in order to translate Rumi’s works and contemporary accounts of a poet who came to achieve enormous international popularity for his “emphasis on ecstasy and love over religions and creeds.” Born into privilege, the son of a religious teacher, Rumi was an eager student of history, philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, Arabic grammar, commentaries on the Quran, and religious law; he attended the most respected colleges, preparing to become “a religious jurist and guider of souls.” As Genghis Khan, and later his grandson, rampaged through the Middle East, Rumi was determined to rise above the “churning realpolitik of the Mongols,” confident that a higher power shaped historical events. His career as a scholar and teacher altered radically when he met Shams of Tabriz, “a singular outlier mystic in a history crowded with extreme religious seekers.” Shams was rude and uncompromising, opposite in personality from the gentle Rumi, but the two formed an intense bond, which Gooch sees as the essential secret of Rumi’s life and work. They withdrew together for many months, inciting jealousy among Rumi’s family. Shams goaded Rumi into sloughing off erudition and looking into his heart, introducing him to music, dance, extreme fasting, and ecstatic whirling. Gooch is generous in portraying 60-year-old Shams’ marriage to Rumi’s teenage stepdaughter as inspired by “late-life blossoming of desire,” despite evidence of the man’s oppressive treatment of his young wife, which ended in her suspicious death. After two and a half years, Shams disappeared, possibly murdered, and Rumi despaired. But his influence lasted for the rest of the poet’s life, emerging in an outpouring of verse, which Gooch explores with passion and insight. A vivid depiction of the powerful religious forces that Rumi transcended to reveal “the sound of one soul speaking.