by Roza Nozari
First published 2025
Roza Nozari grows up as the youngest of three daughters, the only one born in Canada after her parents fled Iran. She hungers for connection to her ancestral homeland, sharing her mother's love of Iranian cooking and craving stories of the family they left behind. When they finally visit Iran, Roza falls for the country's beauty and her extended family's warmth. But she senses gaps in her mother's cheerful account of why they originally left. As Roza matures, her search for belonging shifts inward. Feminist texts ignite her thinking, and she begins sharing radical ideas with her mother, who responds by revealing more of her own past. Her mother describes protesting for the Islamic revolution and her conflicted feelings about marriage. Roza initially resists her queer identity before embracing it and discovering her place in queer Iranian history. She finally learns the real reason her family moved to Canada. This memoir weaves together two women's stories across generations, exploring the distance between mothers and daughters, the meaning of home, and the courage required to accept all parts of yourself.
Genres: family-life, historical-fiction, gender-studies, feminism, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century, gender-identity
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, identity-journey
Setting: Canada, Iran
Period: 21st-Century
256 pages · Hardcover · Knopf Canada