Persian Girls: A Memoir

Nahid Rachlin

Dec 2007 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

For many years, heartache prevented Nahid Rachlin from turning her sharp novelist's eye inward: to tell the story of how her own life diverged from that of her closest confidante and beloved sister, Pari. Growing up in Iran, both refused to accept traditional Muslim mores, and dreamed of careers in literature and on the stage. Their lives changed abruptly when Pari was coerced by their father into marrying a wealthy and cruel suitor. Nahid narrowly avoided a similar fate, and instead negotiated with him to pursue her studies in America.

When Nahid received the unsettling and mysterious news that Pari had died after falling down a flight of stairs, she traveled back to Iran--now under the Islamic regime--to find out what happened to her truest friend, confront her past, and evaluate what the future holds for the heartbroken in a tale of crushing sorrow, sisterhood, and ultimately, hope.

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About the author

Nahid Rachlin is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Jumping Over Fire, Foreigner, Married to a Stranger, and The Heart’s Desire, as well as a collection of short stories, Veils. A graduate of Columbia University and Stanford University, she taught at Yale, Barnard College, and the New School for more than ten years. Her short stories have appeared in more than 50 newspapers and magazines, been translated into several languages, and won many honors, among them the Grace Paley Prize, Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award, the Katherine Anne Porter Fiction Prize, and the Teichmann Fiction Prize.