Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

What if there was a completely different version of your family’s cherished story? Mahloudji’s debut novel traces the fortunes of five women of the Valiat family, an Iranian clan proudly descended from Babak Ali Khan Valiat, “The Great Warrior.” The three generations include Elizabeth, the steely matriarch who remained in post-revolutionary Iran; her daughters, Shirin and Seema, who fled to the U.S. in 1979; and their respective daughters, Niaz, who (ostensibly) chose to remain in Iran, and Bita, a law student in New York. The complicated and often contentious relationships between and among the women are drawn in detail, with most of the narrative—except for Elizabeth’s story—delivered in each individual woman’s voice. A disturbance in the family’s delicate balance of power occurs when, in a madcap episode during a 2005 vacation in Aspen a year after Seema’s death from cancer, Shirin is charged with attempted prostitution. Shirin’s frantic efforts to maintain her social standing result in a temporary relocation to New York, where her niece, Bita, is questioning her own legacy and path in life. An unanticipated visit from the homeland by Elizabeth and Niaz prompts revelations about the family’s history and the ghostly spirit of Seema recounts her frustrations and apprehensions in her adopted homeland. Used to being perceived (in Iran and in their own minds) as high-rollers and worthy of respect, the Valiat women need to reconcile the realities of their current lives—American indifference to their ancestral importance, diminished circumstances in a radically changed Iran, illness and thwarted ambition, to name just a few—with their beliefs about the family’s history of status and privilege. By turns comic and affecting, the saga of the Valiat women conveys hard truths about women’s lives along with a healthy dose of couture and jewelry. The glitz never outshines the heart here. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Publishers Weekly
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In Mahloudji’s ebullient debut, a Persian family reckons with their exile and loss of prestige in the wake of the Islamic Revolution. In December 2005, middle-aged Shirin Valiat, a charismatic events planner based in Houston, is arrested for prostitution in Aspen, Colo., during a vacation with her family. News of Shirin’s arrest harms her thriving business, prompting her to move into her niece Bita’s cramped Manhattan apartment and court new clients at the funeral of a prominent Persian woman with ties to her estranged mother, Elizabeth, who still lives in Tehran. Mahloudji interweaves the story of Elizabeth’s life in the early 1940s, when she’s an aspiring painter and falls for Ali Lufti, the son of the family’s chauffeur. Eventually, Elizabeth marries a much older man, choosing her family’s approval over her love for Ali Lufti, but she’s deeply unhappy, especially as she abandons her art career to care for her three children, all of whom flee with their own children during the Revolution. Only Shirin’s six-year-old daughter, Niaz, remains with Elizabeth. Mahloudji keeps the reader turning the pages as Elizabeth teases and finally reveals her darkest secrets about Ali Lufti along with the reason behind Niaz’s remaining behind in Tehran. It’s a memorable family saga. Agent: Emma Paterson, Aitken Alexander Assoc. (Mar.)

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Before the Islamic Revolution, the Valiats were one of the most important families in Iran. Twenty-seven years after fleeing to the U.S., Shirin clings to this status, while her niece Bita secretly scoffs that "this was America and nobody cared." During their annual vacation in Aspen, Shirin is arrested and her lack of permanent citizenship puts her in an especially precarious position. Shirin comes to New York to stay with law student Bita while she and her recently graduated classmate Patty prepare Shirin's case. When Shirin crashes the funeral of the wife of Ali Lufti, son of the family's longtime chauffeur back in Iran, with whom the family's matriarch, Elizabeth, was once in love, Ali Lufti reveals a secret that upends everything Shirin and Bita believe to be true about their family. Then Elizabeth comes to New York, accompanied by Shirin's daughter, Niaz, and generations collide. Debut novelist Mahloudji deftly shifts among the perspectives of her characters in this irreverent yet deeply felt story of an immigrant family grappling with their past. Recommended for fans of Crazy Rich Asians and Tehrangeles.