Us & Them

The international bestselling author shares “a glitteringly poignant novel” of an Iranian family navigating war, migration, and generational divides (Ruth Padel, author of Where the Serpent Lives).

Ever since the Iranian Revolution, Lili and Goli have argued about where their mother, Bibijan, should live. They also disagree about her finances, which remain blocked as long as she insists on waiting for her missing son to return from the Iran–Iraq war. When they begin sending Bibijan back and forth between Paris and Los Angeles, they begin to wonder where the money is coming from. But in order to remember the truth, Bibijan must finally relinquishes the past.

Mirrored in fragmented lives, Us&Them is a story of generational tensions that explores Iranian life away from home in all its aspects—the ludicrous and the tragic, the venal and the generous. It also highlights how “we” can become “them” at any moment, for our true exile is alienation from others. Acclaimed author Bahiyyih Nakhjavani offers a poignant satire about migration, one of the vital issues of our times.