The Persians

Description

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025

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 ‘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

Promotion info

The unmissable tragicomic debut novel of 2025 - 'I enjoyed it enormously' MARIAN KEYES

Awards

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2025

Reviews

'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 '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? A gloriously engrossing debut' 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 ... These five fierce, passionate, wounded women are at once tragic and hilarious' Dina Nayeri, author of Who Gets Believed? 'Filled with heartbreak, humour, and so much love ... brings a rare wisdom to the chaos of family' Vanessa Chan, author of The Storm We Made 'Glitzy, gutsy and deliciously dark, a romp with serious things to say about misogyny, generational trauma and losing your home' Samantha Ellis, author of Take Courage 'An irresistible novel about a singular, yet wholly recognizable, family. I fell in love with the women in the Valiat family ... it took my breath away' Edan Lepucki, author of California 'Half outrageous, compulsive, shameless; half tender, loving and funny ... a very brilliant, very special book' Jessica Stanley, author of A Great Hope

Author description

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.