Overview

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE 2025 ‘Enormously entertaining’ THE TIMES ‘As funny as it is moving’ GUARDIAN ‘Unputdownable’ HARPER'S BAZAAR ‘Funny, sharp and insightful … a triumph’ LAUREN LAVERNE ‘A joy of a debut’ DAVID MITCHELL ‘Magnificent BERNARDINE EVARISTO Five women. Three generations. A mountain 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? A most anticipated novel of 2025 in Stylist, BBC and iNews. ‘Funny, gutsy and confidently written … an outstanding debut’ DIANA EVANS, 2025 Women’s Prize Judge ‘Mesmerising’ MONICA ALI ‘Darkly funny, richly satisfying’ SARAH WINMAN ‘Riotous … will have you hooked’ STYLIST ‘As exuberant as it is sharp’ iNEWS ‘A sweeping and irreverent tale’ BBC ‘Gloriously engrossing’ TASH AW ‘Exuberant, comic, perceptive’ AMINA CAIN ‘A very brilliant, very special book’ JESSICA STANLEY ‘An unforgettable read’ JOSIE FERGUSON

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9780008589066

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Reviews

‘This polyphonic novel is brimming with larger-than-life characters … funny, gutsy and confidently written … outstanding’ Diana Evans, 2025 Women’s Prize JudgeFun 'Magnificent … I lapped up its wonderful characterisations, profound insights and vivacious prose' Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other ‘A richly textured, sometimes tragic novel that’s enormously entertaining’ The Times 'The word-of-mouth breakout … will have you hooked from the first action-filled chapter' Stylist ‘Full of outrageous laughter, retaining its fire even in tender moments, and relishing the challenge of locating beauty and complexity within outright gaudiness’ Observer ‘Larger-than-life characters … leap off the page in a novel bursting with grudges, gossip and complex personal dynamics’ Mail on Sunday ‘Mahloudji writes with a wisdom and confidence rarely seen in a debut’ Guardian ‘Mahloudji’s moving, madcap saga of women in exile [is] a relentlessly entertaining exploration of Iranian-American immigrant life’ Financial Times ‘A darkly funny read about mothers and daughters, love and loss and being true to yourself’ RED ‘Exuberant, whip-smart, infused with melancholy, tragicomic, huge-hearted and sharp-toothed … A joy of a debut novel by the real deal' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas 'A wonderful multi-generational family drama with characters you really care about … I enjoyed it enormously' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake ‘Mesmerising … 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 … darkly funny, richly satisfying’ Sarah Winman, author of Still Life ‘At once funny and profound, sprawling and personal’ Tash Aw, author of We, The Survivors

Praise for The Persians: ‘This polyphonic novel is brimming with larger-than-life characters … funny, gutsy and confidently written … outstanding’ Diana Evans, 2025 Women’s Prize Judge ‘I found myself lost in this beautifully written novel and laughing as much as I wept’ Pippa Evans, 2025 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction Judge 'Magnificent … I lapped up its wonderful characterisations, profound insights and vivacious prose' Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other ‘A richly textured, sometimes tragic novel that’s enormously entertaining’ The Times ‘Unputdownable … an undoubtedly assured debut’ Harper's Bazaar 'The word-of-mouth breakout … will have you hooked from the first action-filled chapter' Stylist ‘Full of outrageous laughter, retaining its fire even in tender moments’ Observer ‘Mahloudji’s moving, madcap saga of women in exile [is] a relentlessly entertaining exploration of Iranian-American immigrant life’ Financial Times ‘It’s impossible to overstate how much I loved The Persians. Funny, sharp and insightful – this book is a triumph’ Lauren Laverne ‘A novel bursting with grudges, gossip and complex personal dynamics’ Mail on Sunday ‘Mahloudji writes with a wisdom and confidence rarely seen in a debut’ Guardian ‘Exuberant, whip-smart, infused with melancholy, tragicomic, huge-hearted and sharp-toothed … A joy of a debut novel by the real deal' David Mitchell, author of Utopia Avenue 'A wonderful multi-generational family drama with characters you really care about … I enjoyed it enormously' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake ‘Mesmerising … 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 … darkly funny, richly satisfying’ Sarah Winman, author of Still Life ‘At once funny and profound, sprawling and personal’ Tash Aw, author of The South

‘This polyphonic novel is brimming with larger-than-life characters … funny, gutsy and confidently written … outstanding’ Diana Evans, 2025 Women’s Prize Judge 'Magnificent … I lapped up its wonderful characterisations, profound insights and vivacious prose' Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other ‘A richly textured, sometimes tragic novel that’s enormously entertaining’ The Times 'The word-of-mouth breakout … will have you hooked from the first action-filled chapter' Stylist ‘Full of outrageous laughter, retaining its fire even in tender moments, and relishing the challenge of locating beauty and complexity within outright gaudiness’ Observer ‘It’s impossible to overstate how much I loved The Persians. Funny, sharp and insightful – this book is a triumph’ Lauren Laverne ‘Larger-than-life characters … leap off the page in a novel bursting with grudges, gossip and complex personal dynamics’ Mail on Sunday ‘Mahloudji writes with a wisdom and confidence rarely seen in a debut’ Guardian ‘Mahloudji’s moving, madcap saga of women in exile [is] a relentlessly entertaining exploration of Iranian-American immigrant life’ Financial Times ‘A darkly funny read about mothers and daughters, love and loss and being true to yourself’ RED ‘Exuberant, whip-smart, infused with melancholy, tragicomic, huge-hearted and sharp-toothed … A joy of a debut novel by the real deal' David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas 'A wonderful multi-generational family drama with characters you really care about … I enjoyed it enormously' Marian Keyes, author of My Favourite Mistake ‘Mesmerising … 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 … darkly funny, richly satisfying’ Sarah Winman, author of Still Life ‘At once funny and profound, sprawling and personal’ Tash Aw, author of We, The Survivors

Author Information

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.

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