Terrific read about an Iranian American family. Set around the one year anniversary of Anahita and her children in a traffic accident, it's very much about secrets and grief. Mitra has moved from New Jersey to California and made a new life- she's estranged from her father but never from her mother or from Ana. Her partner Jeremy, a physician, is pushing her for a bigger relationship than she's prepared to have, she's got refugees from Iran - a mother and daughter- living her in basement, and she's feeling tremendously guilty. Her trip home blows up and she also learns surprising things about Ana. And she's compelled to tell her mother a secret she kept for Ani over the years, a secret which her mother had blown off but which even Mitra didn't fully understand. This is a sprawling novel, with multiple themes but it's very much focused on family,. including the family we make. If I have a quibble it's that one of the plot lines- the woman Olga wants rescued from Iran- is a little hazy and frankly unnecessary. Multiple people have their say, although Mitra is the dominant character. There are layers to this and tentacles but it's rich with culture and emotion. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Highly recommend.

A beautifully written book which explores the complex relationships of an extended Iranian-American family following the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Rich in story, emotions, culture, and with very well written characters, this book both held my heart, and taught me much.

A wonderful read, please don't miss it!

My thanks to Kensington publishers for allowing me to read an ARC of the book via NetGalley. The book is scheduled to be published on 1/3/23. All opinions in this review are my own and are freely given.

Like the title, this book is just a little longwinded and off the mark. An interesting cultural study, but the narrative drags and meanders. I did not finish this one.

Susanne Pari's forthcoming novel grabbed me immediately with its layered portrayal of grief. The detail throughout the book is heightened, imaginative, itself enough to propel the entire reading experience. The novel begins in 1998 with 40-year-old Mitra Jahani flying from San Francisco to New Jersey for the one-year anniversary of her beloved younger sister Anahita’s death, along with her two young children, in a car accident. Mitra has been estranged from her father, while keeping contact with her mother and sister, for nearly two decades. Her father is an imposing patriarch who provides for the extended family and set a condition that Anahita could only marry if the fiercely independent Mitra did as well; to preserve her independence, she waited until both engagements were announced and then obtained a tubal ligation, rendering herself unmarriageable. Traveling back, Mitra has to navigate a complex web of family politics, complicated by Iranian politics, all while kneecapped by grief and discovering the complexities—and sorrows—of her sweet younger sister’s life.

It’s hard to get too deep into this book without spoilers, and one of the things I enjoyed most about it was how it kept surprising me—not just with plot details, but by the ways it zoomed across time, space, and perspective. At its heart are relationships between brilliant, complex women who fight against patriarchy, endure abuse and grief. I did feel like things got a bit muddled at the end, with the introduction of a new character who didn’t quite get their due, but overall it was still beautiful and cathartic. I highly recommend this if you love family sagas, thinking about immigration and generational change, or want to process anger or grief. These are characters—especially the abrasive yet compassionate Mitra—I loved spending time with in a richly drawn world.

Influenced by the author’s family’s experiences following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, this story takes place among a community of Iranian immigrants in 1990s New Jersey. In a culture and generation where traditional gender roles are set in stone and women are subjugated to men, Mitra, because of a decision she made, is cut off by her father and living in California. When she returns for the one year anniversary of the tragic death of her sister, niece, and nephew, secrets are revealed and life altering events are set in place.

The author has a beautiful way with words as she weaves this tale of the immigrant experience. There is joy, sadness, tension, anger, growth, and evolution. A touching, poignant read specific to an Iranian American family; I think most of us can find something with which to relate in this realistic portrait of a family grappling with cultural and generational differences. And don’t be surprised if you have a hankering for an expertly brewed cup of tea while reading.

A five star read that I think would be a good addition to any book club’s reading list.

This story started out very slow. and was hard to get into. There wasn't a lot going on and the characters didn't seem very likable. The whole first part of the book was hard to read because the topics were so disturbing. I'm glad I stuck it out because once I got past that, I really enjoyed the second half of it. I understand how the first part was necessary to get there. I really liked the last part of the book.

In the Time of Our History by Susanne Pari is the story of the Jahani family adapting to life in the United States after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Shireen is the dutiful, obedient wife dominated by her overbearing husband. Mitra is a rebellious first generation American daughter fleeing the expectations of her father and is struggling to find her identity after her sister’s tragic death. The book explores generational and cultural differences in immigrant communities. The characters are flawed and well developed. The story is raw and hopeful, and the characters feel authentic as they experience challenging circumstances. They deal with grief, infidelity, trauma, and sponsorship. They also struggle with class, political, and cultural barriers. This book reminds me of the plight of immigrants suspended between two worlds and belonging to neither.

In the Time of Our History would be a timely book club pick with the current events in Iran. I felt entertained and informed as I read the beautiful and powerful prose. I highly recommend this one!

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

3.5 Stars.

An in depth and moving depiction of Iranian Americans as they integrate their culture and beliefs into American Society. Filled with trauma and grief this book spoke to me on many levels. However it was long and often felt like it was dragging. I would have liked to see what happened to Yusuf a bit more. It’s enjoyable but very heavy

What an appropriately timed novel which the author could not have surmised when she began this book. The Iranian American author, daughter to an Iranian father and American mother, must know intimately of what she writes. She was born in NJ and lived in the US and Iran after fleeing the latter country in 1979 due to the Islamic Revolution. This marvelous story of of immigrants and the first generations settled into the US has peculiarities pertinent to the Iranian-American diaspora but many of the issues can be generalizable to the conflict between the old customs and the assimilation to a new country. Often, it is said, immigrants straddle both worlds, rocking their identity as to whom they belong to. In this case we are presented with the Johani family, a strictly patriarchal father with 2 daughters. Mitra, the eldest, is a "bulldog", rebellious, tough and insensitive to her little sister who meekly follows what her father wants. When Mitra refuses an arranged marriage through mostly irreversible methods, her father banishes her from their home on the East Coast and she moves to San Francisco. She has not talked with her father in years but after the sudden death of her sister and her children, she must attend the "one year" anniversary of that traumatic event. What happens hereafter is a story of familial love/hate, expectations, morality, infidelity, secrecy and family traditions. Her father shuns her while she is home but her mother, who has been subservient to him her whole life, begins to mentally tussle with subjecting herself to his treatment after a particular egregious incident. As the role of women in this patriarchal society is explored, one cannot help but reflect what is going on with the riots in Iran currently over the death of a woman whom the morality police beat for not wearing her hijab correctly. It has become Iran's "George Floyd" moment as women are burning their hijabs and protesting in the streets. The tussle between the old and the new is reflected in the book as well as family members return for a visit to Iran. Family is everything in Iran and the book reflects the wide net caste in the involvement of family members in each other's lives. Mitra is the focal character, drawn perfectly as a complex but business like individual. It is through her grief at her sister's death that she evolves as a character and nourishes her more emotional self leading to a stronger mother and daughter relationship.
I truly loved this book and hope all run out to explore the vivid world in which this family lived.

Wonderful book! I left my 5-star review on Goodreads (under a pseudonym). Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read an advance copy of Susanne Pari’s In the Time of Our History.

In the Time of Our History, by Susanne Pari, is a family saga that not only provides insights into the vagaries of the Iranian-American experience but is also full of heart. The story is deeply resonant to me, as I come from a Middle Eastern and American family and recognize the conflicts between loyalty to family, with its deeply held traditions from the Old World, versus living a free life as a contemporary woman. The novel deftly weaves together many strands—among them Iranian cultural and political history, family conflicts, betrayal, and redemption. The Jahani family is made up of many intriguing characters, but the two powerful women at the center of the narrative, mother and daughter Shireen and Mitra, are beautifully drawn characters who have stayed with me well beyond my page-turning read. This compelling novel deals with substantial issues of patriarchy, trauma, and the world of refugees, at the same time providing a reading experience one can escape into with pleasure.

Daughter of Iranian immigrants, Mitra, has put as much distance as possible between her and her family after a choice she made in her early 20s caused her father to never speak to her again.

One year after the tragic death of Mitra’s sister Ana and her two children, Mitra returns to her parents and her hometown and discovers more about her sister and her life and the lives of her extended family members, while at the same time, learning ever more about herself.

This is a gorgeous book that deals with love and loss, family secrets, and ‘what ifs’. Susanna Pari does a wonderful job bringing these complex characters to life complete with their flaws and their strengths, and the result is a wonderful family saga, richly told.

A story about fighting against the patriarchy.

An interesting story but the pace was too slow for my taste. At the end of the book, I had hoped for more closure with certain characters and relationships.

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a punch in the gut read. Following the complexity of familial relationships, immigration, cultural expectations, and more we get the heavy story of Mitra. It's a fascinating read as we learn about the lives of her sister and other family and everything they've gone through. It's very character driven and emotional - a difficult read at times but very interesting to digest.

This book raises a lot of interesting thoughts and questions.

In the Time of Our History
Susanne Pari

Mitra and Anahita are first generation Americans while most of the Jahani family migrated to the United States when they escaped the 1979 Iranian Revolution. This is a story of sisters, near or far, who come to need each other. Of secrets, of expectations broken, of sorrows, and of one shattered light shining through to warm a family of broken loneliness. Until the light burns out. This is one sister's instinctive encouragement of her mother and father's devolving relationship. This is the pain of a mother and daughter at odds with each other, out mourning each other, and finally, miraculously, finding room for the broken pieces of each other that the secrets left behind. This is a daughter shaping her unexpected life story from a yearning for joy to an acceptance of a stumbling solemnity; to a holding up of choice traditions and new ways. This is the history of a family finding its way through cultures, disappointments, and the inter-generational harshness of a tough love, to become the family that they must be for those who remain and remember and share all of who they were. This is letting go and finding the joy, again, in the memories and in the living of life.

If you are drawn to a well crafted literary experience with vulnerable and relatable characters, or want to get lost in the truly authentic and haunting realities of complicated familial intergenerational relationships, you will love this novel. This would be an excellent book club pick if your members go deep into open ended questions like "Autocracies survive when they can control the substance and flow of information to their citizens. This requires a ruthless vigilance to silence intellectuals and creatives. Have you ever been in a situation where you were afraid of writing or saying something you believed?"

Thank you NetGalley and Kensington Books for this ARC in exchange for a fair review.

This was a nicely written novel. It is a heavy story with a lot of sad topics. I did enjoy the Iranian perspective in America, and the Iranian history.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are completely my own.

I truly enjoyed reading this book. It highlighted the universality of family and home albeit in a dysfunctional way. It was culturally revealing as well as generational. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Writing: 5/5 Characters: 5/5 Plot: 5/5

I loved this character and culture driven drama about an extended Iranian American family post the 1979 Islamic revolution. The characters have depth and nuance that take them far beyond the obvious stereotypes that *could* describe each of them: the family patriarch, the obedient wife, the rebellious daughter, the faithful family retainer. The depictions are honest — no clear heroes or victims, no melodramatic righteous rage — just people finding their way while blending an inherited traditional culture with the modern practices of their new home.

The language is powerful but never manipulative, and the stories feel real. Moral dilemmas — with no clearly correct solutions — abound, and the frank and straightforward discussions of some of them — perceived racism, roles for women, infidelity, etc. — are captivating. I loved the way immigrants were depicted as individuals, each with their own backstory, set of initial circumstances, and eventual integration paths — none following the same script. Also — one of the best first lines I’ve read in a long while.

Set in the late 1990s and taking place in New Jersey and San Francisco. Great for fans of “Of a Place For Us” by Fatima Farheen Mirza. Highly recommended!

Quotes:

“Espresso and anxiety — well behaved on their own, rambunctious as urchins together.”

“Mitra, on the other hand, had once told a flirtatious union official that if he didn’t smell like a sewer in non ninety-degreee weather, she might consider thanking him for staring blatantly at her breasts. Another time, Mitra told the mayor’s secretary — a consistently rude person — to call after her PMS was over.”

“Anahita had innately understood that it was a traditional woman’s responsibility to refract unwanted male attention, a concept Mitra once denounced as a direct offshoot of the idea of hejab, invented and perpetuated by men who didn’t want to take responsibility for their own lust.”

“I also had a difficult father. Some people cannot abandon their misery. Mitra studied him. His face was drawn, his mouth pulled down either end. ‘Is that how you justify their behaviour?’ ‘No, it is how I keep from hating them. Hate takes too much energy.’ ”

“This was the dynamic, false though it was on its face. Mitra tried to see Akram the way Julian did. ‘She’s just confused, Mitra. Wouldn’t you be? She’s never known anything different. We have to teach her.’ Mitra hates those lines; they sounded like something from a Kipling story about the civilized enlightening the natives. As if the Western world was devoid of poor, uneducated, and bitter people.”

“Surely someone had reminded her of this fact: that few people escaped the tragedy of senseless death, that suffering had no purpose, no meaning, no justification. But she hadn’t heard, hadn’t listened. Until now. Why now? She didn’t know. It didn’t matter. She got it.”

“This is what I’m explaining, Shireen. You came to American, and while you were here, Iran moved forward. After the Kennedys invited the Shah and Farah to visit America, the rush to reform was on. Not only did the landscape change — the buildings and roads and modern conveniences — but also the people, the culture. Even the traditional families couldn’t ignore the excitement of it — the opportunities for prosperity, technology, for resistance against Soviet influence.”

“Mitra squinted at the tube of the jetway and spotted her mother between the hulking arms of two businessmen, their suit bags hanging off their shoulders like slaughtered game.”

“Perhaps she’d seen too many TV talk shows where women displayed their mistakes and misfortunes as if they were wares on a blanket at the bazaar. Or perhaps she knew now that so few outcomes in life could be controlled.”

“The mere fact of their abandonment was a stigma, a curse almost, that prevented them from being wanted by anyone. They came from bad stock, from people in such dire straits or lacking such humanity and sense of goodness that they could abandon their own offspring.”

“Those were the days when she didn’t want to have much to do with her parent’s culture, which prized opaque symbolism excessively. The harder a person had to work to discover hidden meanings, the higher its value.”

I loved the analysis of family dynamics in this one, but Mitra was hard to relate to throughout. I think that at times that worked well within the story, but I really enjoyed the other characters within the novel. I did enjoy the Iranian perspective in America, and I think many of my students from Iranian background will enjoy this book.

Some readers will, no doubt find this an enticing novel; however, I am not one of them. The storyline to me seemed ponderous with characters that seemed to be cardboard. The topic deserves attention and I suspect that it does provide insight into Iranian experiences in America. Unfortunately is was not appealing to me.

Mt star rating reflects my personal tastes and should not be taken to condemn the topic or author. It is just my personal reading preferences. Others will, no doubt enjoy it; I do have to say that I learned a good deal of the author's viewpoint about the inner workings of these families.