The Good Daughter: A Memoir of My Mother's Hidden Life

Author(s): Jasmin Darznik

Biography & Memoir

When Jasmin Darznik finds a photo among her father’s possessions shortly after his death, she recognises the child in the veil and bride’s clothes as her mother, but the groom is unfamiliar. Who had her mother married all those years before? Getting direct answers proves difficult, but a few months later, packages begin to arrive – her mother sends her ten cassette tapes that year, and together those tapes reveal the secret history of Jasmin’s family. Gradually she learns the truth about the man her mother married when she was just a girl, and about the other daughter, the Good Daughter, who she had had to leave behind in Iran when Jasmin's family moved to the States. As well as giving a fascinating insight into life in Iran, this is an unforgettable story about women, lives lived unknowingly in parallel, and the insufferable mother-daughter bond..


Product Information

A poignant and beautifully written memoir of three generations of women, beginning in Iran nearly a century ago.

Jasmin Darznik was born in Tehran, Iran and received her Ph.D. from Princeton University.Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.She has taught Iranian literature at the University of Virginia and is now a professor of English and creative writing at Washington and Lee University.She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.

General Fields

  • : 9780434019083
  • : Cornerstone
  • : William Heinemann Ltd
  • : February 2011
  • : United Kingdom
  • : February 2011
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Jasmin Darznik
  • : Paperback
  • : 955.053092
  • : 336