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?