Female Life on Planet Earth

When Heti’s mother, Ana, dies, she leaves behind a lifetime of unconditional love, immigrant grit, and an impeccable retail sales record at Diamonds-R-Us. But a mysterious package upends everything: a collection of photographs of Ana as a young woman—armed, robed in the garb of Muslim fundamentalism, pointing a gun at sobbing women and posing beside burning buildings—reveals a life Heti never imagined.

With these images come staggering questions: who was Ana before America, and what has Heti inherited? Rather than ask them, Heti spends the year quietly mourning, walking about Los Angeles and listening to the stories of the women she encounters in her family, at work, in the world. When it falls to her to organise the party to mark the anniversary of Ana’s death, Heti has built up enough courage to use the occasion to demand answers from the women gathered. It is only a matter of minutes before Heti understands that with the truth. Now, she risks losing her mother all over again.

With sparkling wit and emotional precision, Female Life on Planet Earth is the stunning new novel from award-winning author Laleh Khadivi.