A captivating Iranian family Valiat’s saga whose fate is intertwined with modern Iran. In Iran they were somebodies, but in America they’re nobodies. We follow, Elizabeth, from childhood to old age, a real matriarch, a lost young artist plagued with a too-big nose, and lost love, who remained in Tehran despite the revolution, while her daughters are 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,  fled to the US in 1979, the year of the revolution. They are kept company with Niaz, her young, Islamic-law-breaking granddaughter returns to Iran while Bita, a disillusioned law student in New York trying to find deeper meaning by giving away her worldly belongings.

Shirin’s bizarre arrest for prostitution, while on an annual vacation a year after her sister’s death from cancer, 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 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 a 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.

“One day there will be another revolution and I’ll be ready. The repression, the silencing of our hearts cannot last. The Islamic Republic cannot live forever. I know it is up to women. Will these women be ready, too?” writes Sanam Mahloudji, who explores the Iranian-American experience. The Persians has been longlisted for this year’s Women’s Prize for Fiction.

The multi-generational family epic The Persians, is a reflection on the current state of Iran,  relentlessly exploring three generations of the descendants of Babk Ali Khan Valiat, also known as “The Great Warrior”.

Mahloudji is telling a very particular kind of family who cares little about wanting more depth from a novel. As all Iranian-American immigrants know, a great deal depends on if and then when you migrated from Iran.

According to Mahloudji, “in February 1979, Ruhollah Khomeini descended elegantly over Iran in his black robe, like a glorious bird, gliding down from Paris, the sun catching its feathery folds and blinding everyone”.

The Persians by Sanam Mahloudji, Fourth Estate £16.99/ Scribner £28, 384 pages.