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The Persians

Sanam Mahloudji

$32.99

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English
Fourth Estate
01 March 2025
'The word-of-mouth breakout' STYLIST

'As funny as it is moving' GUARDIAN

'I enjoyed it enormously' MARIAN KEYES

'Mesmerising' MONICA ALI

'Glorious' SARAH WINMAN

'Funny and profound' TASH AW

A riotously funny and moving debut novel following five women from three generations of a once illustrious Iranian family as their lives are turned upside down

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 is kept company by Niaz, her young, Islamic-law-breaking granddaughter. In America, Elizabeth’s two daughters have built new lives for themselves. There’s Shirin, a flamboyantly high-flying event planner in Houston, who considers herself the family's future; and Seema, a dreamy idealist turned bored housewife languishing in Los Angeles. And then there's the other granddaughter, Bita, a disillusioned law student 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 and gossip about them spreads like wildfire. 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 mattered to anyone? And, will reputation be enough to make them a family again?

Spanning from 1940s Iran into a splintered 2000s The Persians is an irresistible portrait of a unique family in crisis that explores timeless questions of love, money, art and fulfilment. Here is their past, their present and a possible new future for them all.

A most anticipated novel of 2025 in Stylist, BBC, iNews and Publishers Weekly.

'As exuberant as it is sharp’ iNEWS

'A sweeping and irreverent tale' BBC

'Funny, unexpected and riotous … will have you hooked' STYLIST

‘Filled with heartbreak, humour, and so much love’ VANESSA CHAN

'A very brilliant, very special book' JESSICA STANLEY
By:  
Imprint:   Fourth Estate
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 234mm,  Width: 153mm,  Spine: 33mm
Weight:   480g
ISBN:   9780008589059
ISBN 10:   0008589054
Pages:   384
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Sanam Mahloudji was born in Tehran and grew up in Los Angeles after leaving Iran during the Islamic Revolution. Her fiction has won a Pushcart Prize and appears in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the Kenyon Review, the Idaho Review, Passages North and elsewhere. She was nominated for a 2018 PEN/Robert J Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers for her first published story.

Reviews for The Persians

'As exuberant as it is sharp’ iNEWS 'A sweeping and irreverent tale' BBC 'The word-of-mouth breakout … A funny, unexpected and riotous read, we guarantee The Persians will have you hooked from the first action-filled chapter' Stylist ‘Mahloudji writes with a wisdom and confidence rarely seen in a debut … Multigenerational stories of family anguish and upheaval remain as popular as ever, from … Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko and Elif Shafak’s stunning exploration of generational trauma, The Island of Missing Trees. The Persians earns a place alongside these heavyweights’ Guardian 'A wonderful multi-generational family drama with characters you really care about. I'm still thinking about them now. I enjoyed it enormously' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake ‘A mesmerising debut that reminds us that our past travels with us … Gorgeously written, with a flair for the comic and characters that dance off the page and into your heart’ Monica Ali, author of Love Marriage ‘An ambitious, glorious feat. Five women's voices become one irresistible whole in this darkly funny, richly satisfying, wonderful debut’ Sarah Winman, author of Still Life ‘At once funny and profound, sprawling and personal, The Persians questions history’s grip on our lives—is it possible to free ourselves from the past, and do we even want to? Gloriously engrossing’ Tash Aw, author of We, The Survivors ‘An epic of intricate and beautiful proportion, The Persians is exuberant, comic and perceptive’ Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy ‘A witty and deeply absorbing saga … at once tragic and hilarious’ Dina Nayeri, author of Who Gets Believed? ‘Filled with heartbreak, humour, and so much love’ Vanessa Chan, author of The Storm We Made ‘Glitzy, gutsy and deliciously dark, a romp with serious things to say’ Samantha Ellis, author of Take Courage ‘Half outrageous, compulsive, shameless; half tender, loving and funny … a very brilliant, very special book’ Jessica Stanley, author of A Great Hope


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