A darkly funny, life-affirming debut novel following five women from three generations of a once illustrious Iranian family as they grapple with revolutions personal and political. ''I enjoyed it enormously'' MARIAN KEYES ''Glorious ... Darkly funny, richly satisfying'' SARAH WINMAN ''Funny and profound ... A gloriously engrossing debut'' TASH AW ''Exuberant, comic and perceptive'' AMINA CAIN Meet the women of the Valiat family. In Iran, they were somebodies. In America, they''re nobodies. First there is Elizabeth , the regal matriarch with the famously large nose, who remained in Tehran despite the revolution . She lives alone in a shabby apartment except when she is visited by Niaz , her young, Islamic-law-breaking granddaughter, who takes her partying with a side of purpose, and somehow manages to survive. Across the ocean in America, Elizabeth''s daughters have built new lives for themselves. There''s Shirin , a charismatic and flamboyantly high-flying event planner in Houston, who considers herself the family''s future; and Seema , a dreamy idealist turned bored housewife languishing in the privileged hills of Los Angeles. And then there''s the other granddaughter, Bita , a disillusioned law student spending her days in New York trying to find deeper meaning by giving away her worldly belongings. When an annual vacation in Aspen goes wildly awry and Shirin ends up being bailed out of jail by Bita, the family''s brittle upper class veneer is cracked wide open. Soon, Shirin must embark upon a grand quest to restore the family name to its former glory. But what does that mean in a country where the Valiats never even mattered? Can they bring their old inheritance into a new tomorrow together? Spanning from 1940s Iran into a splintered 2000s, these five women are pulled apart and brought together by revolutions personal and political. The Persians is a darkly funny, deeply moving and profoundly searching portrait of a unique family in crisis. Here is their past, their present and a possible new future for them all. ''Filled with heartbreak, humour, and so much love'' VANESSA CHAN ''A very brilliant, very special book'' JESSICA STANLEY ...

Autorentext

Sanam Mahloudji is an American writer born in Tehran and based in London. She is the winner of a Pushcart Prize for her fiction and was nominated for the PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers. Her debut novel, The Persians, was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2025.

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SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2025

**'Enormously entertaining'**THE TIMES

'Unputdownable' HARPER'S BAZAAR

'Funny, sharp and insightful ... a triumph' LAUREN LAVERNE

**'Magnificent'**BERNARDINE EVARISTO

Five women. Three generations. A whole lot of family history.

The Valiat family are in crisis. Elizabeth, the regal matriarch, remained in Tehran despite the revolution with only the Islamic law-breaking Niaz for company. Meanwhile, in America, Shirin, Seema and Bita are wondering if their gleaming lives in 'the land of plenty' are all they had hoped for.

When an annual vacation goes wildly awry and Shirin is arrested, long-held Valiat family secrets begin to surface. As their lives are turned upside down, could revealing the truth save their family or might it break them apart, once and for all?

'Funny, gutsy and confidently written ... an outstanding debut' DIANA EVANS, 2025 Women's Prize Judge

'Mesmerising' MONICA ALI, author of Love Marriage

**'A joy of a debut'**DAVID MITCHELL, author of Utopia Avenue

**'Darkly funny, richly satisfying'**SARAH WINMAN, author of Still Life

**'As funny as it is moving'**GUARDIAN

**'Riotous ... will have you hooked'**STYLIST

'As exuberant as it is sharp' iNEWS

**'A sweeping and irreverent tale'**BBC

'Gloriously engrossing' TASH AW, author of The South

'Exuberant, comic, perceptive' AMINA CAIN, author of Indelicacy

'A very brilliant, very special book' JESSICA STANLEY, author of Consider Yourself Kissed

**'An unforgettable read'**JOSIE FERGUSON, author of The Silence In Between