Ashley Dartnell's mother was a charming American, her father an elegant Englishman, both trying to shake off their past and elevate their lives to a more romantic and exotic present in Iran. The story begins with Ashley being eight years old and living in Tehran in the 1960s, when the Shah was in power and life for Westerners was affluent and privileged. However, things were not exactly a fairy tale. There were bankruptcies and prisons, betrayals and lovers, lies and concealments. And throughout all this was her passionate and dynamic mother, Genie.

Mother-daughter stories are among the most fascinating in modern autobiography, from The Liar's Club and The Glass Castle to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Bad Blood. Farangi Girl deserves to be in their company. It is an honest and endlessly recognizable portrait of a mother from a daughter who loved her (and was loved in return). Within this remarkable context, Ashley's path to adulthood was more tumultuous than many others, and this portrait of a captivating and endlessly inventive mother is stunning and deeply moving.

Pages: 432,
Publication Year: 0410,
Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm