The Persians

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.



'Glorious … Darkly funny, richly satisfying' SARAH WINMAN


'Funny and profound … A gloriously engrossing debut' TASH AW


'I enjoyed it enormously' MARIAN KEYES


‘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