Description

The internationally acclaimed masterpiece from one of Iran’s most influential writers – a powerful and essential tale of female freedom

Women Without Men traces the interwoven destinies of five women – including a wealthy middle-aged housewife, a sex worker and a schoolteacher – as they arrive by different paths to live together in an abundant garden on the outskirts of Tehran.

Drawing on elements of Islamic mysticism and recent Iranian history, this unforgettable novel depicts women escaping the narrow confines of family and society, and imagines their future living in a world without men.

Translated from Persian by Faridoun Farrokh

Publisher Review

Women Without Men is the best feminist novel I know. It’s thrilling, beautiful and hilarious, filled with weird women in transformation and the violent little men desperately trying to control them. I am convinced this novel is in fact a magic trick. Reading it feels like being invited to the rebellious unveiling of an age-old secret. It is both deeply mysterious and clear as water, filled to the brim with undeniable truth — Johanne Lykke Holm Parsipur is a courageous, talented woman, and above all, a great writer — Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis Using the techniques of both the fabulist and the polemicist, Parsipur continues her protest against traditional Persian gender relations in this charming, powerful novel * Publishers Weekly *