What do you think?
Female Life on Planet Earth
By the award-winning author of the acclaimed Kurdish trilogy, a novel about a daughter discovering her mother’s secret past as a violent militant in the Iranian Revolution When Heti’s mother, Ana, dies, she leaves behind a spotless affectionate parent, modern career woman, and life of the party. Heti moves in a daze until her grief is upended by the arrival of an unmarked package containing photographs of Ana as a young woman—robed, standing in front of a burning building, and pointing a gun at a group of sobbing women. Female Life on Planet Earth follows Heti as she raises teenage daughters, keeps up with client accounts, sits in LA traffic, and prepares to host the traditional anniversary memorial—all while quietly reeling with the violent secrets of the woman she thought she knew. Though the dead can’t answer her questions, the living never seem to shut up. Heti is buoyed as she listens to the women who populate her hilarious aunts and cousins, aggressive soccer moms, business associates, dear friends, and total strangers. Inside these surprising, uproarious stories of female life, Heti discovers the selves women hide away, selves defiantly in search of pleasure, autonomy, delight, and connection. Heti begins to understand the complex and contradictory possibilities that exist inside every woman—including her mother, including herself. As the one-year mark of Ana’s death arrives, Heti calls together the women who knew her and asks Who was my mother, truly? And who are we? Told with humor and emotional precision, Female Life on Planet Earth is a celebration of lineage, inheritance, and the boundlessness of women over time and space.
240 pages, Hardcover
First published September 22, 2026
About the author
Laleh Khadivi
7 books93 followersLaleh Khadivi was born in Esfahan, Iran, in 1977. She received her MFA from Mills College and was a Creative Writing Fellow at Emory University. She has been awarded a Whiting Award, a Pushcart Prize, and an NEA Literature Fellowship. She has also worked as a director, producer, and cinematographer of documentary films. Khadivi lives in Northern California.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Thanks to the publishers and netgalley for a free copy in return for open and honest review.
Powerful book through the eyes of different woman pre and post iranian revoultion and how female try to free of male domination and background is the daughter mourning her mother and a year before celebrate her life but does she really know her mother before her birth
Powerful book through the eyes of different woman pre and post iranian revoultion and how female try to free of male domination and background is the daughter mourning her mother and a year before celebrate her life but does she really know her mother before her birth
September 9, 2026
After the death of her mother, Heti finds out that she has only really gotten to know one version of her mother.
That’s really what this book is all about. The focus is definitely on women, how there’s more than what we think and that there’s change as well. In a way it’s also about female power and gender roles, which is occasionally very funny and feminist:
“she just changed like women must. One minute she’s your girlfriend, and then your housewife, and then a mother, and then one day, a dimensional woman with a mind of her own, while you, Heti said, are trapped in the limits of a man.”
This novel was maybe different from what I expected, but a great book nonetheless.
Thank you Oneworld and Netgalley UK for the ARC.
That’s really what this book is all about. The focus is definitely on women, how there’s more than what we think and that there’s change as well. In a way it’s also about female power and gender roles, which is occasionally very funny and feminist:
“she just changed like women must. One minute she’s your girlfriend, and then your housewife, and then a mother, and then one day, a dimensional woman with a mind of her own, while you, Heti said, are trapped in the limits of a man.”
This novel was maybe different from what I expected, but a great book nonetheless.
Thank you Oneworld and Netgalley UK for the ARC.
June 9, 2026
I read this book within 24 hours - once I began, Khadivi's exquisite prose, as incisive as it is sublime, carried me like a tide through to the very end of the story.
This novel is a masterful exploration of grief, mothers and daughters, and the beautiful complexity of women's lives and identities. Khadivi's portrayal of Heti, her mother, as well as every passing mother, daughter, wife, friend or sister described in the novel, even in passing was incredibly nuanced, intricate, and moving. Khadivi's writing is elegantly efficient, the novel clocking in at less than 250 pages, with every word measured and meaningful. I will be thinking about this story for a long time to come.
This novel is a masterful exploration of grief, mothers and daughters, and the beautiful complexity of women's lives and identities. Khadivi's portrayal of Heti, her mother, as well as every passing mother, daughter, wife, friend or sister described in the novel, even in passing was incredibly nuanced, intricate, and moving. Khadivi's writing is elegantly efficient, the novel clocking in at less than 250 pages, with every word measured and meaningful. I will be thinking about this story for a long time to come.
October 5, 2026
Heti is an Iranian-American accountant living in Los Angeles with her husband and teenage daughters. As the story opens, her mother has just died, and her aunt explains that tradition calls for the eldest daughter to hold a commemoration ceremony on the first anniversary of the death. Then Heti receives photographs of her mother in a revolutionary pose, dressed in black and holding a military-style weapon, with women cowering in the background. Over the following year, while planning the ceremony, Heti meets a long line of women: her aunt, cousins, clients, a poet, a soccer mom, a delivery driver, the staff of a Mexican restaurant her mother liked, and more. The novel explores how little we know of another person's life, even someone we believe we know well.
Some of these encounters work well. Heti asks a refugee poet to write a poem for the commemoration. In Iran, the poet hosted a clandestine call-in radio show where women phoned in anonymously to read their own poetry, sharing secrets about their private lives. The show grew so popular, and challenged patriarchal control so directly, that she was arrested and sentenced to death before she escaped. The commemoration itself is also strong. Several generations of the family gather, along with women who knew Heti's mother. Some relatives carefully guard what they know, while a few women share more than custom calls for, and her mother's past is finally revealed.
For me, the main drawback is the episodic structure. Several scenes misfire in their setup or delivery, most notably the stand-up routines at a secret comedy club. Heti's cousin Mina performs there, and I assume the stage is meant as catharsis, but it fell flat for me. The book then gives us routines from other comedians, and none of them work. The strong scenes show the author's skill, but they sit between too many that don't connect, which makes the book feel choppy.
Some of these encounters work well. Heti asks a refugee poet to write a poem for the commemoration. In Iran, the poet hosted a clandestine call-in radio show where women phoned in anonymously to read their own poetry, sharing secrets about their private lives. The show grew so popular, and challenged patriarchal control so directly, that she was arrested and sentenced to death before she escaped. The commemoration itself is also strong. Several generations of the family gather, along with women who knew Heti's mother. Some relatives carefully guard what they know, while a few women share more than custom calls for, and her mother's past is finally revealed.
For me, the main drawback is the episodic structure. Several scenes misfire in their setup or delivery, most notably the stand-up routines at a secret comedy club. Heti's cousin Mina performs there, and I assume the stage is meant as catharsis, but it fell flat for me. The book then gives us routines from other comedians, and none of them work. The strong scenes show the author's skill, but they sit between too many that don't connect, which makes the book feel choppy.
August 12, 2026
3.5/5 🌟
Heti is grieving the death of her mother when an unmarked package arrives containing photographs that completely change everything she thought she knew about her. As she tries to make sense of this discovery, she begins talking to the women who knew her mother best, uncovering their complicated, contradictory and often surprising stories along the way.
I really enjoyed the exploration of womanhood and the way the story looks at all the different lives, secrets and experiences women carry with them. I also really loved the moments of humour and tenderness throughout, especially alongside some of the darker revelations.
I did find myself feeling a little disconnected from the story at times, and there were parts that felt slower than I would have liked, but I really appreciated what the author was trying to explore. A thought provoking and often wonderfully strange read!
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a proof copy x
Heti is grieving the death of her mother when an unmarked package arrives containing photographs that completely change everything she thought she knew about her. As she tries to make sense of this discovery, she begins talking to the women who knew her mother best, uncovering their complicated, contradictory and often surprising stories along the way.
I really enjoyed the exploration of womanhood and the way the story looks at all the different lives, secrets and experiences women carry with them. I also really loved the moments of humour and tenderness throughout, especially alongside some of the darker revelations.
I did find myself feeling a little disconnected from the story at times, and there were parts that felt slower than I would have liked, but I really appreciated what the author was trying to explore. A thought provoking and often wonderfully strange read!
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a proof copy x
October 4, 2026
This was a sleeper hit of a novel for me. On its face, it’s about grieving a parent, in a telling that refuses to be dictated by sentimentality. None of it was a gut-punch, per se, but all of it pressed very steadily on the bruise of being a woman.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
It’s a lot, Heti began, and every day since she died, I feel like I know her less and less. Like she was one way to us, to the world, and inside, to herself, she was someone else. Since she’s been gone, I feel like I have to make her up, piece by piece, bit by bit, just to remember her. And I am not sure I am remembering her as she really was or as I want her to be. Heti waited. I’m not sure I even know who she really was, and if I found out, would I even like her? Heti’s breath caught in her chest. What if she was a bad person, Heti pleaded, why would you throw a party for a bad person?
The fourth novel of a Kurdish-born Iranian-American filmmaker and novelist – whose first three Kurish trilogy novels “The Age of Orphans”, “The Walking” and “A Good Country” were characterised by the author herself in an author’s note in my edition as “a trilogy about three generations of men” and elsewhere as “books written in the voice of men about men’s worlds” – a multi-generational exploration of diaspora with a very masculine focus. This then is a deliberate shift to a female perspective and an exploration of “the boundlessness of women over space and time” and (again as per the authors note) about the silence of women in many family conversations and the realization (in respect of her own mother) that “her silence, my silence, is actually an enormous container, full of memory, desire, terror, hilarity and courage, independence and need”.
He novel takes place over a year – with Section headings based on the Seasons, and with sub-sections which include “Vernal Equinox”, “Summer Solstice”, “Equinox” and “Winter Solstice” as well as astrological themes “Jupiter”, “Gravity”, “Black Holes”, “The Strong Force” etc which fit her aim (the closing of her author note) to explore how “the stories of women, shared between women, serve as the gravity that anchors them to one another and to the surface of earth”.
And the year is crucial – it marks the time from the death of the first party narrator Heti (an Iranian-American accountant) mother’s death - a death which leaves her reeling as mother and daughter were very close. And the lead up to the party she is culturally and traditionally expected to hold after a year – a party of feasting, ostentatious grieving and remembering and attended only by women (form all parts of the deceased’s life).
The main perturbation in the novel (the perturbation and eccentriticy of orbits is an explicit theme) comes in the second chapter when an anonymous person from the UK sends her some pictures of her mother casually carrying a machine gun and she quickly realises (as is confirmed by a second letter) participating in the Iranian revolution. This is as far removed from the image Heti has of her mother as is possible.
Much of the novel is her encounters and discussions with other women such as her Aunt, her Aunt’s two daughters (her cousins) one of who does stand up comedy another who holds a Winter solstice party, her two daughters, the clientele of one of her own clients who provide filming for women-demand erotica, a poet she hires to write a poem for the wake, an aggressive soccer Mum, a delivery driver, a communal experience at the concert of a legendary female-generation-spanning pop star, a headmistress telling her about her daughter’s rebellion, a Mexican immigrant caterer friend and her indigenous-right-activist daughter – with the only prominent male characters her husband and a misogynistic (especially about the menopause) neighbour.
And through these often quirky, frequently humourous encounters Heti tries to come to terms with her shattered image of her mother, which often allows the other women to explore their own stories of female life and particularly female generational relationships.
If anything I did feel that the Iranian backstory was starting to take a back seat a little, more acting as a catalyst to a fascinating book rather than being explored in its own right – but this changed completely in the last part of the novel – a lengthy set piece scene at the one-year death-anniversary memorial event where Heti who has hitherto tried to evade her mother’s past (and ripped up the second letter she received) decides to make the first set of photos the centrepiece of the event and to provoke her mother’s friends and relatives into finally being honest with her about her mother’s background …….. and this leads to a series of revelations and opinions as the container of the silence is finally broken open and we hear the memories of desire, terror and courage that lead both to Heti’s birth and her mother’s move to America without Heti’s father.
Given the quality of the writing and its topicality I think this is a strong Booker contender (and its published by a three times winning independent press) – I would also rate it a long way ahead of the not dissimilar “The Nights Are Quiet In Tehran” on this year’s International Booker shortlist.
Recommended.
My thanks to Oneworld publications for an ARC via NetGalley.
No, Heti said in deep consideration, no, I think you’re wrong. Women are not crazy, we are probably more like this bush, cut back, coming back, threatened and then changing, dying, coming alive again in our children. Constant regeneration. Which, Heti offered, might look like madness to a man who just lives his life straight, like an arrow, from the start of the record to the end. For women, the needle skips. We are repetitions within repetitions, with infinite variations, some in our single lifetime, some in the lifetimes before or beyond. We change, and change again, to jump the skip, to survive. The neighbor stopped cutting and Heti went on, with a small smile. Celia didn’t go crazy, she just changed like women must. One minute she’s your girlfriend, and then your housewife, and then a mother, and then one day, a dimensional woman with a mind of her own, while you, Heti said, are trapped in the limits of man.
September 27, 2026
What do you do when you're left not with the unasked questions but those you had no idea you should be asking? Already numbed with grief, consumed by the resuming patterns of life, and overwhelmed by her aunt's fervent insistence on traditions, Heti's world view takes another blow. She's delivered three framed photographs of her mother that seem like they're of a woman completely different than the one she knew. That others always affirmed in how they related to her.
This new, potentially villainous, woman in front of her leaves her wondering just what she knows about people. About herself. About those she feels she's aware of as intimately as her own skin? What is a picture but a way someone is captured? What is the role of woman, wife, mother, daughter? Are customs the thing that should dictate how we see the world? What does it mean for social constructs to evolve? Is change always for the good? Or should we find wisdom in former patterns. Or, just maybe, is it the concept of right and wrong ways to exists, paths to tread, the problem?
With it's philosophical threads usually woven by some scientific concept, I initially took this book as almost a little too pretentious. A lofty ideas showcase the intellectual superiority of my reflections sort of work. Fortunately I told my own snobbery to shush and continued. Soon the book melted into a more balanced set of thoughts and interactions. As it layered the jumble of thoughts Heti has about all the women in her life, about womanhood, history, and our place in this universe and nature rolled into another it dawned on me how incredibly comprehensive the answers were.
Not in the sense that you will find the meaning of life in this novel. More that the array of life experiences, circumstances, and generations represented or expressed in this is astonishing. I don't think I've ever seen a book quite like this. That has such clear character voices, holds so many world views, or representations of the different types of bonds we have from the familial, to the neighborly, to encounters with strangers and those we see in our regular routines in passing.
In such short exchanges we learn so much about a person. A way of life. Of different eras. Not just between Heti and those around her, but third parties that have influenced the person she's having an exchange with. In these are also sprinkled peeks into various parts of the world, critique of social constructs, and commentary on the act and role of self expression.
Not to be overlooked, I'd also like to commend its willingness to look at the darker side of realities. In refugee stories, in those about survivors of turmoil, revolutions, or coups, often we have people aligned with whoever history deems is the 'morally just' side. This book seriously considers what it would be like for someone who wasn't so aligned. To see someone who may have committed terrible deeds go on to live a life we'd say they didn't deserve, but through the eyes of someone who only ever witnessed them acting in ways that were the polar opposite is a good way to make us question our ideas of redemption, reform, and forgiveness.
Parts of this may have been a bit bitter, but it will definitely continue to tickle my brain. I foresee revisiting this book at some point. Easily.
This new, potentially villainous, woman in front of her leaves her wondering just what she knows about people. About herself. About those she feels she's aware of as intimately as her own skin? What is a picture but a way someone is captured? What is the role of woman, wife, mother, daughter? Are customs the thing that should dictate how we see the world? What does it mean for social constructs to evolve? Is change always for the good? Or should we find wisdom in former patterns. Or, just maybe, is it the concept of right and wrong ways to exists, paths to tread, the problem?
With it's philosophical threads usually woven by some scientific concept, I initially took this book as almost a little too pretentious. A lofty ideas showcase the intellectual superiority of my reflections sort of work. Fortunately I told my own snobbery to shush and continued. Soon the book melted into a more balanced set of thoughts and interactions. As it layered the jumble of thoughts Heti has about all the women in her life, about womanhood, history, and our place in this universe and nature rolled into another it dawned on me how incredibly comprehensive the answers were.
Not in the sense that you will find the meaning of life in this novel. More that the array of life experiences, circumstances, and generations represented or expressed in this is astonishing. I don't think I've ever seen a book quite like this. That has such clear character voices, holds so many world views, or representations of the different types of bonds we have from the familial, to the neighborly, to encounters with strangers and those we see in our regular routines in passing.
In such short exchanges we learn so much about a person. A way of life. Of different eras. Not just between Heti and those around her, but third parties that have influenced the person she's having an exchange with. In these are also sprinkled peeks into various parts of the world, critique of social constructs, and commentary on the act and role of self expression.
Not to be overlooked, I'd also like to commend its willingness to look at the darker side of realities. In refugee stories, in those about survivors of turmoil, revolutions, or coups, often we have people aligned with whoever history deems is the 'morally just' side. This book seriously considers what it would be like for someone who wasn't so aligned. To see someone who may have committed terrible deeds go on to live a life we'd say they didn't deserve, but through the eyes of someone who only ever witnessed them acting in ways that were the polar opposite is a good way to make us question our ideas of redemption, reform, and forgiveness.
Parts of this may have been a bit bitter, but it will definitely continue to tickle my brain. I foresee revisiting this book at some point. Easily.
August 5, 2026
This focuses on the year following the death of Heti's mother, a year of mourning in Iranian culture. During this time, she starts to receive packages from England, containing photos of her mother back in Iran in her younger years.
Over the course of the year, she starts to learn things about her mother she didn’t know about, and over time realises, she didn’t actually know her mother at all. Unable to confront the one person she wants to; she finds solace in talks and conversations she has with the women around her. Through their stories - some funny, some surprising - she also learns that, whilst she may not have known who her mother really was, the same can be said for any woman. Every woman has a complicated life, some with secrets, some with contradiction. So, she starts to ask herself, why should this be any different for her mother? Just because she’s her mom, doesn’t make her perfect. She certainly isn’t so why would you expect your mother to be?
The line, "the weird thing is, I'm more interested in my mother now she's dead," is actually what drew me into reading this. The entire premise of discovering your mother's past definitely caught my attention.
With the one-year anniversary approaching, and a customary memorial to organise, she calls together the women who know her best, and it raises the ultimate question: who are we?
Whilst grief is different for everyone, I could relate somewhat to the cultural mourning customs discussed here. Whilst they aren't entirely the same as Judaism, there are monthly and annual customs we follow, so this wasn't completely unfamiliar to me. We don't have the large family memorial at the end of the first year, but we do have the initial week-long shiva and the unveiling of a headstone, marking the end of that mourning period.
Just like the one-year memorial, the one-year cycle of the story gave an immersive structure to the overall narrative. Moving through the seasons alongside Heti as she learned more about her mother and listened to the stories of the women around her worked really well.
What really stood out to me was how much this book explores the shared experiences of womanhood, despite how different our individual lives, cultures and circumstances can be. Throughout the stories of these women, you see how we are all shaped by the expectations placed upon us, the relationships we have and the experiences we carry. There are obviously huge differences in how women experience the world, but there is something incredibly relatable in recognising those common pressures and expectations.
I did find myself disconnected from the text at times, and I think this stemmed largely from the writing style. Dialogue blends into the surrounding text without punctuation and, whilst I eventually got used to it, I frequently found myself going back over sentences and realising, wait, that was someone saying something? It definitely pulled me out of the story at times. I can appreciate that this style may work beautifully for some readers, but it's something I'd definitely suggest being mindful of going in.
There were slower sections, but I think that is somewhat inherent to the structure. This is a book built around conversations unfolding over an entire year, and sometimes conversations in real life are slow, meandering and seemingly ordinary. In that sense, the pacing felt quite authentic.
This was an exploration of womanhood, full of thought, humour and, quite frankly, a little bit strange. It takes you on a journey to learn more about Heti's mother, but ultimately it's also about how we, as women, are shaped by the women around us: our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends. Even the stranger on the street. We all leave little pieces of ourselves with one another, sometimes without even realising it.
Thank you to Laleh Khadivi and Novel Tours for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Over the course of the year, she starts to learn things about her mother she didn’t know about, and over time realises, she didn’t actually know her mother at all. Unable to confront the one person she wants to; she finds solace in talks and conversations she has with the women around her. Through their stories - some funny, some surprising - she also learns that, whilst she may not have known who her mother really was, the same can be said for any woman. Every woman has a complicated life, some with secrets, some with contradiction. So, she starts to ask herself, why should this be any different for her mother? Just because she’s her mom, doesn’t make her perfect. She certainly isn’t so why would you expect your mother to be?
The line, "the weird thing is, I'm more interested in my mother now she's dead," is actually what drew me into reading this. The entire premise of discovering your mother's past definitely caught my attention.
With the one-year anniversary approaching, and a customary memorial to organise, she calls together the women who know her best, and it raises the ultimate question: who are we?
Whilst grief is different for everyone, I could relate somewhat to the cultural mourning customs discussed here. Whilst they aren't entirely the same as Judaism, there are monthly and annual customs we follow, so this wasn't completely unfamiliar to me. We don't have the large family memorial at the end of the first year, but we do have the initial week-long shiva and the unveiling of a headstone, marking the end of that mourning period.
Just like the one-year memorial, the one-year cycle of the story gave an immersive structure to the overall narrative. Moving through the seasons alongside Heti as she learned more about her mother and listened to the stories of the women around her worked really well.
What really stood out to me was how much this book explores the shared experiences of womanhood, despite how different our individual lives, cultures and circumstances can be. Throughout the stories of these women, you see how we are all shaped by the expectations placed upon us, the relationships we have and the experiences we carry. There are obviously huge differences in how women experience the world, but there is something incredibly relatable in recognising those common pressures and expectations.
I did find myself disconnected from the text at times, and I think this stemmed largely from the writing style. Dialogue blends into the surrounding text without punctuation and, whilst I eventually got used to it, I frequently found myself going back over sentences and realising, wait, that was someone saying something? It definitely pulled me out of the story at times. I can appreciate that this style may work beautifully for some readers, but it's something I'd definitely suggest being mindful of going in.
There were slower sections, but I think that is somewhat inherent to the structure. This is a book built around conversations unfolding over an entire year, and sometimes conversations in real life are slow, meandering and seemingly ordinary. In that sense, the pacing felt quite authentic.
This was an exploration of womanhood, full of thought, humour and, quite frankly, a little bit strange. It takes you on a journey to learn more about Heti's mother, but ultimately it's also about how we, as women, are shaped by the women around us: our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends. Even the stranger on the street. We all leave little pieces of ourselves with one another, sometimes without even realising it.
Thank you to Laleh Khadivi and Novel Tours for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
female life on planet earth begins with heti grieving the death of her mother, ana, a woman she thought she knew completely, until an anonymous package arrives containing photographs of ana as a young woman during the iranian revolution, including one of her holding a gun. suddenly, heti is left trying to reconcile the affectionate, modern mother she knew with this completely unfamiliar woman who existed before her. i think that idea alone fascinated me because there is something almost unsettling about realising that our mothers had entire selves before they became our mothers. i kept thinking about how easily we reduce women to the roles through which we know them: mother, daughter, wife, aunt, friend, when every one of those women contains versions of herself that the people closest to her might never meet. as heti moves through the year following ana’s death, preparing for her mother’s memorial and speaking to women from completely different corners of her life, i felt the novel slowly become less about solving the mystery of one woman and more about asking whether another person can ever truly be known at all.
i think what stayed with me most was the way the book treats women’s stories almost like an inheritance passed between generations. through heti’s daughters, relatives, friends and even strangers, we get these funny, messy and sometimes contradictory little pieces of female life involving motherhood, sex, ageing, ambition, autonomy, desire, grief and all the identities women accumulate and shed throughout their lives. i loved that these women were allowed to contradict themselves because i felt that contradiction was almost the entire point. i also really liked the structure of the novel moving through a year, with seasons, solstices and celestial imagery giving everything this sense of orbit and repetition, as though women keep circling back to versions of the women who came before them while still becoming something entirely their own. i did occasionally wish the iranian revolutionary history remained more central throughout, because the photographs of ana were such a compelling beginning and at times that thread felt pushed aside by the wider conversations, but i think the eventual return to her past made me understand why the novel had wandered through so many other women first. by the end, i wasn’t really asking “who was ana?” anymore. i was thinking about something much more uncomfortable: how much do i actually know about the women i love beyond the version of themselves they have chosen, or been allowed, to show me?
i think what stayed with me most was the way the book treats women’s stories almost like an inheritance passed between generations. through heti’s daughters, relatives, friends and even strangers, we get these funny, messy and sometimes contradictory little pieces of female life involving motherhood, sex, ageing, ambition, autonomy, desire, grief and all the identities women accumulate and shed throughout their lives. i loved that these women were allowed to contradict themselves because i felt that contradiction was almost the entire point. i also really liked the structure of the novel moving through a year, with seasons, solstices and celestial imagery giving everything this sense of orbit and repetition, as though women keep circling back to versions of the women who came before them while still becoming something entirely their own. i did occasionally wish the iranian revolutionary history remained more central throughout, because the photographs of ana were such a compelling beginning and at times that thread felt pushed aside by the wider conversations, but i think the eventual return to her past made me understand why the novel had wandered through so many other women first. by the end, i wasn’t really asking “who was ana?” anymore. i was thinking about something much more uncomfortable: how much do i actually know about the women i love beyond the version of themselves they have chosen, or been allowed, to show me?
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
The story follows Heti, the only child of Ana, an Iranian immigrant in America, Heti has just lost her mother and shortly after the funeral, she was advised by her aunt that tradition dictates she should start organising and planning the one-year memorial gathering to honour her mother’s memory. This set’s Heti off unknowingly on a journey she would never have expected to experience. Heti will learn so many truths about the woman who raised and nurtured her and who she thought she knew inside and out. Shortly after her mothers passing, Heti received a package in the mail from an unknown person in England. The package had no note, only 3 photo’s. Each photo was of her mother in her younger years. Heti as a toddler and a man that Heti took to be her father joined her in one of them. As they say,,, a picture is worth a thousand words. These photo’s made Heti realised she may not have known her mother as well as she thought. This triggers many questions and makes for some interesting discoveries not only during the year but on the memorial day too, when everyone comes together to share their stories, memories and with some revelations, to honour Ana’s life.
This is a very beautifully written, thought provoking novel, I found the prose to be wonderfully poetic and flows perfectly. In the year since her mother’s passing Heti learns so much about her mother’s life before Heti became her priority. She also learns so much about her own life as a woman, as a mother, a wife and a daughter. She goes on this emotional journey of discovery speaking to women from all walks of life, from family members to the barista in a coffee house.
I enjoyed this book so much, in particular I enjoyed the beautiful style of writing. I enjoyed meeting all the characters and their quirks along the way. The suspense of trying to discover the story being told in the mysterious box of photographs that turned up. I think this is a powerful story about woman, but mainly the women who surround us in our everyday lives. A fabulous read.
This is a very beautifully written, thought provoking novel, I found the prose to be wonderfully poetic and flows perfectly. In the year since her mother’s passing Heti learns so much about her mother’s life before Heti became her priority. She also learns so much about her own life as a woman, as a mother, a wife and a daughter. She goes on this emotional journey of discovery speaking to women from all walks of life, from family members to the barista in a coffee house.
I enjoyed this book so much, in particular I enjoyed the beautiful style of writing. I enjoyed meeting all the characters and their quirks along the way. The suspense of trying to discover the story being told in the mysterious box of photographs that turned up. I think this is a powerful story about woman, but mainly the women who surround us in our everyday lives. A fabulous read.
Review of advance copy
⭐️ 3.5 Stars ⭐️
A huge thank‑you to @novel.tours and @oneworldpublications for kindly gifting me this book and giving me a space on the tour 🌍
Female Life on Planet Earth follows Heti, who is still recovering from the loss of her mother when she receives a series of unsettling photographs. These images of her mother, dressed head‑to‑toe in black, holding a gun at a group of distraught young women, forces Heti to confront a painful question of how well do we ever truly know the people we love?
This book is a gentle exploration of grief and identity. As Heti juggles raising teenage daughters, working, and organising her mother’s memorial, the story highlights the contrast between generations of women, those shaped by revolution and upheaval, and their daughters raised in America with entirely different experiences.
I felt like it asked a powerful question, that if you didn’t grow up in the same conditions as your ancestors, can you ever fully understand, or judge, the choices they made?
It also explores culture, womanhood, and the shifting dynamics between men and women across time and place. Yet it never feels like a heavy read, instead, it strikes the perfect balance of humour and warmth, with some surprisingly funny moments that I genuinely wasn’t expecting.
There’s also a strong sense of celebration running through the story, of women and the bonds we make, whether mothers and daughters, sisters, cousins, or friends. While also reminding us that no matter how close we are to someone, there will always be parts of their life we may never fully see.
One critique that I do have, that did spoil the reading experience slightly for me, was the lack of quotation marks. This is the first time I’ve read a book written in this style, and I found it harder to follow at first, especially as the pacing is also quite jumpy. This is probably more a personal preference and I did get used to both elements as I went on, but thought it was worth noting.
Overall, this is a thoughtful story about grief, identity, and how well we can ever know the people we love.
A huge thank‑you to @novel.tours and @oneworldpublications for kindly gifting me this book and giving me a space on the tour 🌍
Female Life on Planet Earth follows Heti, who is still recovering from the loss of her mother when she receives a series of unsettling photographs. These images of her mother, dressed head‑to‑toe in black, holding a gun at a group of distraught young women, forces Heti to confront a painful question of how well do we ever truly know the people we love?
This book is a gentle exploration of grief and identity. As Heti juggles raising teenage daughters, working, and organising her mother’s memorial, the story highlights the contrast between generations of women, those shaped by revolution and upheaval, and their daughters raised in America with entirely different experiences.
I felt like it asked a powerful question, that if you didn’t grow up in the same conditions as your ancestors, can you ever fully understand, or judge, the choices they made?
It also explores culture, womanhood, and the shifting dynamics between men and women across time and place. Yet it never feels like a heavy read, instead, it strikes the perfect balance of humour and warmth, with some surprisingly funny moments that I genuinely wasn’t expecting.
There’s also a strong sense of celebration running through the story, of women and the bonds we make, whether mothers and daughters, sisters, cousins, or friends. While also reminding us that no matter how close we are to someone, there will always be parts of their life we may never fully see.
One critique that I do have, that did spoil the reading experience slightly for me, was the lack of quotation marks. This is the first time I’ve read a book written in this style, and I found it harder to follow at first, especially as the pacing is also quite jumpy. This is probably more a personal preference and I did get used to both elements as I went on, but thought it was worth noting.
Overall, this is a thoughtful story about grief, identity, and how well we can ever know the people we love.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The book tells the story of Heti, a woman in her late thirties or early forties who lives in Los Angeles, having moved to the United States from Iran with her mother when she was three years old. The story begins with her mother's death, and the year she spends preparing for the memorial ceremony marking the anniversary of her passing. The narrative unfolds somewhat erratically over the course of that year, following Heti as she navigates life as a working mother of two daughters while spending time with friends and family. What sets the story in motion is an anonymous package that nudges her towards discovering who her mother really was beyond the caring woman she had always known.
The novel is essentially about the multidimensionality of women and how those different dimensions evolve over the course of a lifetime. While Heti and her mother form the emotional centre of the story, the year of preparations also brings Heti into contact with numerous other women, each of whom possesses aspects of her life that remain invisible to those closest to her. It is these hidden dimensions, nevertheless, that define them.
The book is both thoughtful in its themes and elegant in its execution. While not without flaws (there is a noticeable strain of anti-male sentiment, sometimes tongue-in-cheek and sometimes more earnest) it remains a compelling exploration of womanhood. My main reservation is that the author seems to view both the novel and herself as being deeply rooted in immigrant culture. In reality, the book is suffused with Americanisms to an extent that feels somewhat incongruous, making it less universal than it might otherwise have been. Yes, the protagonist is of Iranian origin, but she is, for all intents and purposes, an Angeleno through and through.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.
The novel is essentially about the multidimensionality of women and how those different dimensions evolve over the course of a lifetime. While Heti and her mother form the emotional centre of the story, the year of preparations also brings Heti into contact with numerous other women, each of whom possesses aspects of her life that remain invisible to those closest to her. It is these hidden dimensions, nevertheless, that define them.
The book is both thoughtful in its themes and elegant in its execution. While not without flaws (there is a noticeable strain of anti-male sentiment, sometimes tongue-in-cheek and sometimes more earnest) it remains a compelling exploration of womanhood. My main reservation is that the author seems to view both the novel and herself as being deeply rooted in immigrant culture. In reality, the book is suffused with Americanisms to an extent that feels somewhat incongruous, making it less universal than it might otherwise have been. Yes, the protagonist is of Iranian origin, but she is, for all intents and purposes, an Angeleno through and through.
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advance review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Virginia Woolf said that we think back through our mothers and this book dramatises not just the way we are shaped by the women who bear us and bring us up, but by other women in our world: aunts, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, daughters, friends, co-workers, room-mates...
For all the good stuff here, there is a slight mis-match between this book's blurb which goes heavy on Ana's role in the Iranian Revolution, and the contents: the title is a far better indicator of what this book is about - women's lives in all their aspects, the hidden, the unsaid, the untalked about. The piecing together by Heti of her mother's life as a reactionary revolutionary policing other 'rebellious' women (something akin to the Aunts in The Handmaid's Tale) comes right at the very end. But before that Heti pretty much just talks to women. Some of these conversations are not terribly convincing in a realistic sense, so it's best to think of this book as a stylised text, one which eschews speechmarks so that all the female voices deliberately merge.
Despite some disappointment in not getting more about the Iranian story, this won me over for the intense focus on womanhood as a complex state of being. It's still a little subversive to people a book pretty much with all women characters (whereas is completely normalised to have books full of men...) and the changing moods, the insight into the precarity of immigrant women, the way they are both at home in Los Angeles and made to feel 'different', even the humour (including a set from a stand-up comic that had me snorting with laughter!) made this a fast read but also an enriching one.
Note to self: check out Khadivi's Kurdish trilogy, even if, as she notes in a foreword, full of men!
Many thanks to Oneworld for an ARC via NetGalley
For all the good stuff here, there is a slight mis-match between this book's blurb which goes heavy on Ana's role in the Iranian Revolution, and the contents: the title is a far better indicator of what this book is about - women's lives in all their aspects, the hidden, the unsaid, the untalked about. The piecing together by Heti of her mother's life as a reactionary revolutionary policing other 'rebellious' women (something akin to the Aunts in The Handmaid's Tale) comes right at the very end. But before that Heti pretty much just talks to women. Some of these conversations are not terribly convincing in a realistic sense, so it's best to think of this book as a stylised text, one which eschews speechmarks so that all the female voices deliberately merge.
Despite some disappointment in not getting more about the Iranian story, this won me over for the intense focus on womanhood as a complex state of being. It's still a little subversive to people a book pretty much with all women characters (whereas is completely normalised to have books full of men...) and the changing moods, the insight into the precarity of immigrant women, the way they are both at home in Los Angeles and made to feel 'different', even the humour (including a set from a stand-up comic that had me snorting with laughter!) made this a fast read but also an enriching one.
Note to self: check out Khadivi's Kurdish trilogy, even if, as she notes in a foreword, full of men!
Many thanks to Oneworld for an ARC via NetGalley
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
What a gorgeous surprise this book was! The writing, the complexity of women’s lives touch, the subtle sense of humor, the insight of culture, all together brought to life a story I just wanted to read without a break.
Heti is someone’s daughter and now someone’s mother, who’s trying to cope with the loss of her dear mother. But not only the physical loss, also the perception smudged by some lies (according to the received pictures).
Once her perception of her mother gets bruised, Heti can’t stop questioning who was she after all? How can someone you thought you knew becomes a new version even after their death?
Through the entire journey of grief and uncertainty, Heti starts to understand the full complexity of being a woman and the layers of personalities that makes them so intricate.
In a world of so many human types and struggles, being a woman is stil, in my eyes, the deepest and empowering experience.
My triggers
* Is your identity stripped from you once you found out some missing puzzle pieces of your past?
* Does toughness come through inheritance?
* Can we agree that sometimes religion and culture get lost into each other’s territory?
* Just because you are genetically related to your family, that doesn’t mean your soul belongs to them too.
* I hide behind sense of humour majority of times. Depressed? Laugh a bit. Too tired to cry? Laugh a bit. Someone died? Oh god, this is gonna sound morbid, but I have to laugh a bit.
* Astrology believer here with huge desire to learn more about it.
* No one adapts faster to any new situation than a woman.
* Loss and grief differ from human to human.
* Women are always regenerating and reinventing themselves, while men can easily live life in a straight line.
Heti is someone’s daughter and now someone’s mother, who’s trying to cope with the loss of her dear mother. But not only the physical loss, also the perception smudged by some lies (according to the received pictures).
Once her perception of her mother gets bruised, Heti can’t stop questioning who was she after all? How can someone you thought you knew becomes a new version even after their death?
Through the entire journey of grief and uncertainty, Heti starts to understand the full complexity of being a woman and the layers of personalities that makes them so intricate.
In a world of so many human types and struggles, being a woman is stil, in my eyes, the deepest and empowering experience.
My triggers
* Is your identity stripped from you once you found out some missing puzzle pieces of your past?
* Does toughness come through inheritance?
* Can we agree that sometimes religion and culture get lost into each other’s territory?
* Just because you are genetically related to your family, that doesn’t mean your soul belongs to them too.
* I hide behind sense of humour majority of times. Depressed? Laugh a bit. Too tired to cry? Laugh a bit. Someone died? Oh god, this is gonna sound morbid, but I have to laugh a bit.
* Astrology believer here with huge desire to learn more about it.
* No one adapts faster to any new situation than a woman.
* Loss and grief differ from human to human.
* Women are always regenerating and reinventing themselves, while men can easily live life in a straight line.
Read
August 27, 2026Book received in return for an honest review from novel tours! 💖
My synopsis: Heti’s dealing with the grief of her mother Ana passing away. She receives a photograph of her mother in the post which illustrates to Heti a contradictory side to her mother that she had never seen before, but doesn’t offer an explanation as to when or where the photo was taken. Upon receiving the phot, Heti begins to dig and uncover secrets about her late mother’s life. Simultaneously, as Heti is her mother’s only child, she has a year to prepare for the 1 year anniversary ceremony which honours her mother’s memory in Iranian culture.
“One year after the death you throw a party. They say tried needs a turn of seasons - one summer, fall, winter and spring- before the sadness lets go.”
My review: I enjoyed the pacing of this and felt quite connected to Heti as a main character. I liked the truth finding aspect of her trying to find out who her mother was in life after she had passed, as you can imagine Heti seeing the photos and feeling as though she never really knew her mother. I liked learning about Heti’s Iranian culture, the sense of identity and womanhood woven throughout the book. I do wish it had speech marks as Sally Rooney also doesn’t use them and it’s a pet peeve of mine, as I personally sometimes get confused as to whether someone is speaking or not.
I liked the format of separating the book into the four seasons to represent the first full year of mourning and preparations for her mum’s anniversary ceremony. At times I struggled to understand who some characters were, so I think it may have helped to have little refreshers throughout the book. Overall I think for the plot the short length of the book was perfect! 💖
Book Instagram @sophiecookbooks
My synopsis: Heti’s dealing with the grief of her mother Ana passing away. She receives a photograph of her mother in the post which illustrates to Heti a contradictory side to her mother that she had never seen before, but doesn’t offer an explanation as to when or where the photo was taken. Upon receiving the phot, Heti begins to dig and uncover secrets about her late mother’s life. Simultaneously, as Heti is her mother’s only child, she has a year to prepare for the 1 year anniversary ceremony which honours her mother’s memory in Iranian culture.
“One year after the death you throw a party. They say tried needs a turn of seasons - one summer, fall, winter and spring- before the sadness lets go.”
My review: I enjoyed the pacing of this and felt quite connected to Heti as a main character. I liked the truth finding aspect of her trying to find out who her mother was in life after she had passed, as you can imagine Heti seeing the photos and feeling as though she never really knew her mother. I liked learning about Heti’s Iranian culture, the sense of identity and womanhood woven throughout the book. I do wish it had speech marks as Sally Rooney also doesn’t use them and it’s a pet peeve of mine, as I personally sometimes get confused as to whether someone is speaking or not.
I liked the format of separating the book into the four seasons to represent the first full year of mourning and preparations for her mum’s anniversary ceremony. At times I struggled to understand who some characters were, so I think it may have helped to have little refreshers throughout the book. Overall I think for the plot the short length of the book was perfect! 💖
Book Instagram @sophiecookbooks
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This novel is so good and will make you pause more than once to either appreciate the freedom you have in your life or ponder what it means to be a woman.
We follow Heti, a mum of two teenager girls in the US, for the twelve months after the loss of her mum. Heti thought she knew her mother and the kind of person her mother was but not long after the funeral she receives a parcel containing photographs of her as a young woman in Iran, enveloped head to toe in a black veil, pointing a machine gun at a group of sobbing young women. Heti suddenly feels lost and confused, unable to reconcile this new angle on her mother with the person she grew up with and loved.
The novel addresses not only what it means to be a daughter or a mother but also a woman. How, where we come from, affects our path forward, how that inherited past is not something we have a choice over yet it shapes us deeply. How female life has changed so much and yet so little over the years: in some countries thankfully we have so much more but it is also true that women are born today just to be that little girl who becomes a young woman in love then maybe a wife and mother - a story which could be told now as well as a century ago. And those women often want to try and better the world for their daughters…
I also loved the aspects of this book that touch what it means to be the descendants of an immigrant.
A truly wonderful read - one of those books that feels like it’s about so little yet sooo much all at once. Loved it and highly recommend it and feel so lucky to have been able to read this book prior to publication! Wholeheartedly recommended!
We follow Heti, a mum of two teenager girls in the US, for the twelve months after the loss of her mum. Heti thought she knew her mother and the kind of person her mother was but not long after the funeral she receives a parcel containing photographs of her as a young woman in Iran, enveloped head to toe in a black veil, pointing a machine gun at a group of sobbing young women. Heti suddenly feels lost and confused, unable to reconcile this new angle on her mother with the person she grew up with and loved.
The novel addresses not only what it means to be a daughter or a mother but also a woman. How, where we come from, affects our path forward, how that inherited past is not something we have a choice over yet it shapes us deeply. How female life has changed so much and yet so little over the years: in some countries thankfully we have so much more but it is also true that women are born today just to be that little girl who becomes a young woman in love then maybe a wife and mother - a story which could be told now as well as a century ago. And those women often want to try and better the world for their daughters…
I also loved the aspects of this book that touch what it means to be the descendants of an immigrant.
A truly wonderful read - one of those books that feels like it’s about so little yet sooo much all at once. Loved it and highly recommend it and feel so lucky to have been able to read this book prior to publication! Wholeheartedly recommended!
September 5, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and Oneworld for my ARC of Female Life on Planet Earth.
The novel centres on Hetie, an American-Iranian woman who lives in LA with her husband Hassan and two daughters, Zora and Ava. Hetie’s mother Ana has recently died and, in line with tradition, she is planning the one-year memorial gathering.
As Hetie starts to plan the memorial, she receives two packages containing newspaper clippings and photographs of her deceased mother holding a machine gun, appearing to threaten and terrorise a group of women. Hetie begins to question whether she ever really knew her mother, which inevitably affects the way she grieves.
The story focuses on Hetie trying to work out who her mother Ana really was before she became a wife and mother, through conversations with friends, family and female acquaintances. There is a strong focus on the mother-daughter relationship and the role and identity of women both before and during motherhood. There are some very poignant conversations and scenes in this story, along with a few very funny moments, particularly between Hetie and her cousin.
The central theme is the mother-daughter relationship, with other themes including loss and grief, women’s identity, immigration and the Iranian Revolution, particularly the position of women.
I enjoyed the writing style and read this book in a day. It was an engaging and easy read, despite the underlying themes of grief and loss. I particularly liked the way it explores the idea that we can never truly know every part of another person, even someone as close to us as our mother.
The novel centres on Hetie, an American-Iranian woman who lives in LA with her husband Hassan and two daughters, Zora and Ava. Hetie’s mother Ana has recently died and, in line with tradition, she is planning the one-year memorial gathering.
As Hetie starts to plan the memorial, she receives two packages containing newspaper clippings and photographs of her deceased mother holding a machine gun, appearing to threaten and terrorise a group of women. Hetie begins to question whether she ever really knew her mother, which inevitably affects the way she grieves.
The story focuses on Hetie trying to work out who her mother Ana really was before she became a wife and mother, through conversations with friends, family and female acquaintances. There is a strong focus on the mother-daughter relationship and the role and identity of women both before and during motherhood. There are some very poignant conversations and scenes in this story, along with a few very funny moments, particularly between Hetie and her cousin.
The central theme is the mother-daughter relationship, with other themes including loss and grief, women’s identity, immigration and the Iranian Revolution, particularly the position of women.
I enjoyed the writing style and read this book in a day. It was an engaging and easy read, despite the underlying themes of grief and loss. I particularly liked the way it explores the idea that we can never truly know every part of another person, even someone as close to us as our mother.
September 28, 2026
Female Life on Planet Earth is a novel by Laleh Khadivi award winning author of the Kurdish trilogy. When Hetis mother Ana dies she leaves behind a spotless affectionate parent modern career woman and life of the party. Heti moves in a daze until her grief is upended by the arrival of an unmarked package containing photographs of Ana as a young woman robed standing in front of a burning building and pointing a gun at a group of sobbing women.
The novel follows Heti as she raises teenage daughters keeps up with client accounts sits in LA traffic and prepares to host the traditional anniversary memorial all while quietly reeling with the violent secrets of the woman she thought she knew. Though the dead cannot answer her questions the living never seem to shut up. Heti is buoyed as she listens to the women who populate her world hilarious aunts and cousins aggressive soccer moms business associates dear friends and total strangers. Inside these surprising uproarious stories of female life Heti discovers the selves women hide away selves defiantly in search of pleasure autonomy delight and connection. As the one year mark of Anas death arrives Heti calls together the women who knew her and asks Who was my mother truly And who are we Told with humor and emotional precision the book is a celebration of lineage inheritance and the boundlessness of women over time and space.
A distinctive and valuable read for anyone interested in literary fiction mother daughter relationships Iranian American stories or the complex possibilities inside every woman.
The novel follows Heti as she raises teenage daughters keeps up with client accounts sits in LA traffic and prepares to host the traditional anniversary memorial all while quietly reeling with the violent secrets of the woman she thought she knew. Though the dead cannot answer her questions the living never seem to shut up. Heti is buoyed as she listens to the women who populate her world hilarious aunts and cousins aggressive soccer moms business associates dear friends and total strangers. Inside these surprising uproarious stories of female life Heti discovers the selves women hide away selves defiantly in search of pleasure autonomy delight and connection. As the one year mark of Anas death arrives Heti calls together the women who knew her and asks Who was my mother truly And who are we Told with humor and emotional precision the book is a celebration of lineage inheritance and the boundlessness of women over time and space.
A distinctive and valuable read for anyone interested in literary fiction mother daughter relationships Iranian American stories or the complex possibilities inside every woman.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I enjoyed this one a great deal.
What begins as a daughter’s attempt to understand her late mother gradually becomes something much broader: a novel about memory, immigration, friendship and the different versions of ourselves that we present to different people. The premise hooked me immediately, but what kept me reading was the way each conversation added another layer, not just to Ana, but to the women around her.
I particularly liked the structure. Each chapter introduces another voice, another perspective, and another reminder that no one—not even those closest to us—is ever fully knowable. It could easily have become repetitive, but I found each encounter brought something fresh, whether poignant, funny or quietly revealing.
Although the mystery of Ana’s past provides the framework, this is much more interested in character than in delivering dramatic revelations. If you go into it expecting a thriller, you may be disappointed. I found the emotional journey far more satisfying than the search for definitive answers.
It perhaps lost a little momentum in the final quarter, and there were moments when I felt some of the conversations made similar points. Even so, the warmth of the writing and the compassion shown towards its characters meant I was more than happy to stay with it.
A thoughtful and quietly affecting novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love, or whether we simply know the version of them they chose to show us.
What begins as a daughter’s attempt to understand her late mother gradually becomes something much broader: a novel about memory, immigration, friendship and the different versions of ourselves that we present to different people. The premise hooked me immediately, but what kept me reading was the way each conversation added another layer, not just to Ana, but to the women around her.
I particularly liked the structure. Each chapter introduces another voice, another perspective, and another reminder that no one—not even those closest to us—is ever fully knowable. It could easily have become repetitive, but I found each encounter brought something fresh, whether poignant, funny or quietly revealing.
Although the mystery of Ana’s past provides the framework, this is much more interested in character than in delivering dramatic revelations. If you go into it expecting a thriller, you may be disappointed. I found the emotional journey far more satisfying than the search for definitive answers.
It perhaps lost a little momentum in the final quarter, and there were moments when I felt some of the conversations made similar points. Even so, the warmth of the writing and the compassion shown towards its characters meant I was more than happy to stay with it.
A thoughtful and quietly affecting novel that asks whether we ever really know the people we love, or whether we simply know the version of them they chose to show us.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The story of Heti, a married mother of two whose mother has just passed away.
Having moved from Iran to Los Angeles when she was 3 years old Heti must not only have to deal with her loss but immediately start planning a traditional Iranian ceremony to take place in her house in a years time to mark the anniversary of her passing.
We spend that year with Heti preparing for the event as she meets some larger than life female characters in ordinary and extraordinary situations. Some of the exchanges between them felt very Tarantinoesque (which is a good thing in my book) as they chew the cud of life.
There is also a little mystery to it as well as Heti receives some photos anonymously in the post of her mother back in Iran in her early years. Covered from head to toe and pointing a rifle at some women, this isn’t the mother Heti has known and loved.
I really enjoyed this one. It’s a story about family and grief and women from different walks of life and how they get by.
It read incredibly easily and I finished it in no time.
Slight criticisms. Were there any positive male characters in it? Hetis husband seemed to exist only in name for most of the book and when introduced seemed like an afterthought.
4 strong stars for this one.
Many thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.
Having moved from Iran to Los Angeles when she was 3 years old Heti must not only have to deal with her loss but immediately start planning a traditional Iranian ceremony to take place in her house in a years time to mark the anniversary of her passing.
We spend that year with Heti preparing for the event as she meets some larger than life female characters in ordinary and extraordinary situations. Some of the exchanges between them felt very Tarantinoesque (which is a good thing in my book) as they chew the cud of life.
There is also a little mystery to it as well as Heti receives some photos anonymously in the post of her mother back in Iran in her early years. Covered from head to toe and pointing a rifle at some women, this isn’t the mother Heti has known and loved.
I really enjoyed this one. It’s a story about family and grief and women from different walks of life and how they get by.
It read incredibly easily and I finished it in no time.
Slight criticisms. Were there any positive male characters in it? Hetis husband seemed to exist only in name for most of the book and when introduced seemed like an afterthought.
4 strong stars for this one.
Many thanks to the publisher for the ARC through Netgalley.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
How well do we really know our mothers? Do we tell more to our sisters or to strangers? These are all questions asked in this fascinating novel that explores the relationships between mothers and daughters, particularly, but between all women. Heti is the lead character whose mother has died and, as an only child, is tasked with organising a gathering to mark a year since her passing. During the weeks and months of that first year, Heti is sent photos of her mother by a stranger which make her doubt whether she really knew her at all. No longer able to confront her, Heti speaks to the women around her - family, friends, strangers - and listens to their stories not just about her mother but about their lives, loves, thoughts, ambitions, tastes…anything that they want to share. And she hopes to find answers about her mother’s history.
This is a wonderfully moving exploration of the relationships between women. I found it really interesting to reflect on how sometimes we can be more open with strangers than we can with our closest relatives. I just wish that it had been a bit longer with a few more stories or more detail on the stories that were shared. But I suppose that is true to life, that we don’t always get all of the information we would like.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.
This is a wonderfully moving exploration of the relationships between women. I found it really interesting to reflect on how sometimes we can be more open with strangers than we can with our closest relatives. I just wish that it had been a bit longer with a few more stories or more detail on the stories that were shared. But I suppose that is true to life, that we don’t always get all of the information we would like.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.
October 2, 2026
How well do we ever really know our parents?
That was the question I kept coming back to while reading this book.
After Heti’s mother, Ana, dies, an unexpected package of old photographs from Iran reveals a side of her mother that Heti never knew existed. A younger, more rebellious Ana emerges from the photographs, and suddenly the quiet woman Heti knew feels like only one small part of a much bigger story.
Ana was easily the most fascinating part of the book for me. Even though she is gone from the beginning, her presence seems to fill the entire story. I loved the idea that our parents existed as complete, complicated people long before they became our parents — with their own secrets, choices, regrets and dreams.
The book explores womanhood, identity, family, belonging and the things we inherit from the women who came before us. Some of it felt deeply intimate, while other parts had a dreamlike, almost haunting quality.
It reminded me a little of Persepolis in its exploration of womanhood, Iran and cultural identity, but the book ultimately has a voice and rhythm of its own.
My favourite thing about it was probably that feeling of looking at someone you thought you knew and suddenly realising there is an entire life behind the person you see.
Secrets, inheritance, resilience.
A thoughtful and quietly haunting read.
That was the question I kept coming back to while reading this book.
After Heti’s mother, Ana, dies, an unexpected package of old photographs from Iran reveals a side of her mother that Heti never knew existed. A younger, more rebellious Ana emerges from the photographs, and suddenly the quiet woman Heti knew feels like only one small part of a much bigger story.
Ana was easily the most fascinating part of the book for me. Even though she is gone from the beginning, her presence seems to fill the entire story. I loved the idea that our parents existed as complete, complicated people long before they became our parents — with their own secrets, choices, regrets and dreams.
The book explores womanhood, identity, family, belonging and the things we inherit from the women who came before us. Some of it felt deeply intimate, while other parts had a dreamlike, almost haunting quality.
It reminded me a little of Persepolis in its exploration of womanhood, Iran and cultural identity, but the book ultimately has a voice and rhythm of its own.
My favourite thing about it was probably that feeling of looking at someone you thought you knew and suddenly realising there is an entire life behind the person you see.
Secrets, inheritance, resilience.
A thoughtful and quietly haunting read.
August 31, 2026
This is the story of Heti, an Iranian-American woman who lives in LA with her husband and two daughters. After Heti’s mother dies, she is asked to organise a one year anniversary memorial as is tradition in her culture. One day, Heti is given a package that changes her whole perception of her mum when she sees photographs of her as a young woman wearing a black veil and pointing a gun at a group of terrified women. She’s left with questions about who her mother was, what life she lead before Heti was born and do we really know someone?
This book wasn’t what I was expecting but I loved reading the conversations Heti had with different women that cross her path; hearing their own stories and views on womanhood and motherhood highlighting the difference that culture and religion can make to these experiences.
I thought this was easy to read but really thought provoking and so funny in places. The ending was beautifully written with both sadness and humour revealing some truths about Heti’s mother and answering some of her questions.
The book really delves into the question of identity, the experiences of women and asks if we can ever truly know someone.
I really enjoyed this one and recommend if you like character driven stories that make you think long after reading.
Thanks NetGalley for the early copy.
This book wasn’t what I was expecting but I loved reading the conversations Heti had with different women that cross her path; hearing their own stories and views on womanhood and motherhood highlighting the difference that culture and religion can make to these experiences.
I thought this was easy to read but really thought provoking and so funny in places. The ending was beautifully written with both sadness and humour revealing some truths about Heti’s mother and answering some of her questions.
The book really delves into the question of identity, the experiences of women and asks if we can ever truly know someone.
I really enjoyed this one and recommend if you like character driven stories that make you think long after reading.
Thanks NetGalley for the early copy.
Review of advance copy
I love that we have these episodic moments of women's stories. Heti comes across these women in her dailly life whether it's at the grocery store or through her family and they are an exploration of what it is to be female.
Mina (Heti's cousin) was wondering through the woods and her partner and children had to drive back for her when they realised they'd forgotten her and as a result of this she became a comedian. This is one of the many stories we have where women are decentralised from family once their work as 'mother'/ 'caregiver' is complete. The role that they consumed becomes obsolete.
The writing is stunning you can feel the precision of the wording and for a short book it really opens the reader up to questions.
Initially, I thought our protagonist had a dissociative passiveness and in part I still do. But now, I can see it for what it is; grief. Grief at the loss of a mother. Grief at never having known who she was before she was a mother and the grief of being a woman.
This really is a fantastic book to dissect especially in regard to the question, 'Who was your mother before she was a mother?'
Mina (Heti's cousin) was wondering through the woods and her partner and children had to drive back for her when they realised they'd forgotten her and as a result of this she became a comedian. This is one of the many stories we have where women are decentralised from family once their work as 'mother'/ 'caregiver' is complete. The role that they consumed becomes obsolete.
The writing is stunning you can feel the precision of the wording and for a short book it really opens the reader up to questions.
Initially, I thought our protagonist had a dissociative passiveness and in part I still do. But now, I can see it for what it is; grief. Grief at the loss of a mother. Grief at never having known who she was before she was a mother and the grief of being a woman.
This really is a fantastic book to dissect especially in regard to the question, 'Who was your mother before she was a mother?'
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
This was such a surprise, in the best way possible. Khadivi has such beautiful writing, I really didn't want to put the book down. I love how all of a sudden along comes a true woman's story. A Female Life on Planet Earth really empathises on the way we are shaped by the women who surround us, mothers, grandmother's, aunts, sisters, cousins & friends even female strangers.
Heti is a daughter, she's also now a mother & is figuring out how to deal with her loss of her own mother. When she receives a random package. Three different pictures of her mother that perceive her mother in a different light other than how Heti knows her. Heti then goes onto question who she was & how can she mourn someone she no longer feels she knew.
Grief is a very individual journey & throughout Hetis Journey she understands how complex a womans life can be.
The story definitely had me paying attention, very thought provoking & Khadivi has a way of describing things ie football in such a mesmerising way.
For such a small book it's a story that really packed a punch & I'll be thinking of it for a long time to come.
Thank you to Novel Tours & OneWorld Publications for a copy of the book.
Heti is a daughter, she's also now a mother & is figuring out how to deal with her loss of her own mother. When she receives a random package. Three different pictures of her mother that perceive her mother in a different light other than how Heti knows her. Heti then goes onto question who she was & how can she mourn someone she no longer feels she knew.
Grief is a very individual journey & throughout Hetis Journey she understands how complex a womans life can be.
The story definitely had me paying attention, very thought provoking & Khadivi has a way of describing things ie football in such a mesmerising way.
For such a small book it's a story that really packed a punch & I'll be thinking of it for a long time to come.
Thank you to Novel Tours & OneWorld Publications for a copy of the book.
September 3, 2026
Thank you to Oneworld and NetGalley for this ARC.
This was such an unusual read for me, because I found myself both fascinated by it and slightly disconnected from it at the same time.
I was really invested in Heti’s grief after losing her mother and the way she deals with all the emotions surrounding that loss. The exploration of cultural expectations was fascinating, and I especially enjoyed the comparison between two very different worlds: Heti and her mother’s upbringing, and Heti’s relationship with her own daughter and the reality they live in now.
Where I struggled was with Heti’s mother’s backstory. I found it interesting and could appreciate what it brought to the story, but the writing became a little too poetic for me in those sections, and I couldn’t connect with them emotionally in the same way.
The exploration of humanity, grief and womanhood was definitely the highlight for me. There was a lot here that I found thoughtful and fascinating, even if the writing style occasionally kept me at a distance.
An interesting and unusual read, but one I connected with more through its themes than through the whole story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️½
This was such an unusual read for me, because I found myself both fascinated by it and slightly disconnected from it at the same time.
I was really invested in Heti’s grief after losing her mother and the way she deals with all the emotions surrounding that loss. The exploration of cultural expectations was fascinating, and I especially enjoyed the comparison between two very different worlds: Heti and her mother’s upbringing, and Heti’s relationship with her own daughter and the reality they live in now.
Where I struggled was with Heti’s mother’s backstory. I found it interesting and could appreciate what it brought to the story, but the writing became a little too poetic for me in those sections, and I couldn’t connect with them emotionally in the same way.
The exploration of humanity, grief and womanhood was definitely the highlight for me. There was a lot here that I found thoughtful and fascinating, even if the writing style occasionally kept me at a distance.
An interesting and unusual read, but one I connected with more through its themes than through the whole story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️½
October 3, 2026
4.5 rounded up
We follow Heti for about a year as she works through the grief of losing her mother. As Heti takes direction from her aunt, she discusses learning new things about her mother and their homeland, Iran, with strangers and other family members without revealing what she’s found out.
The discussions in this book are centered on women, female power, and gender roles in both the United States and Iran.
Khadivi handles this exploration by giving Heti a completely different view point to life than her aunt (very traditional) as she tries to find out who her mother was before immigrating to the US
I think the discussion on the relationship between mother and daughter as well as the secrets that a mother can hold from a child was explored very well here, even though it was just from Heti’s point or view
This was already on my radar (see my late 2026 covers post), but then @gilmoreguide shared this as a pick on @sarahsbookshelves for the fall preview)
This released on September 22, 2026. As of Oct 2, there are only 141 ratings on Goodreads and 4(!!!!) on StoryGraph
Please pick this up and join the discussion!!
We follow Heti for about a year as she works through the grief of losing her mother. As Heti takes direction from her aunt, she discusses learning new things about her mother and their homeland, Iran, with strangers and other family members without revealing what she’s found out.
The discussions in this book are centered on women, female power, and gender roles in both the United States and Iran.
Khadivi handles this exploration by giving Heti a completely different view point to life than her aunt (very traditional) as she tries to find out who her mother was before immigrating to the US
I think the discussion on the relationship between mother and daughter as well as the secrets that a mother can hold from a child was explored very well here, even though it was just from Heti’s point or view
This was already on my radar (see my late 2026 covers post), but then @gilmoreguide shared this as a pick on @sarahsbookshelves for the fall preview)
This released on September 22, 2026. As of Oct 2, there are only 141 ratings on Goodreads and 4(!!!!) on StoryGraph
Please pick this up and join the discussion!!
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
Thank you to Oneworld Publications for the Advanced Reader Copy.
“This is what happens when you do not mourn the dead, they come back any way they can.”
A beautiful, intelligent and deeply moving meditation on grief, daughters, mothers and the hidden lives women carry beneath the roles they inherit.
A daughter spends a year mourning her mother, only to discover that grief is not the end of knowing someone. Sometimes it is where the real understanding begins.
The story follows Heti in the year after her mother’s death as she prepares for the traditional one-year remembrance ritual expected of the eldest daughter in an Iranian family. Alongside her grief, mysterious packages begin arriving at her home, revealing fragments of her mother’s life, desires, fears and inner world that Heti never knew. Throughout the year, Heti also finds herself in a series of conversations with people both intimate and unexpected - family members, strangers, old connections and chance encounters - each one revealing another layer of what it means to be a woman, a daughter and a mother.
This book felt like grief wrapped in poetry. It is quiet, philosophical, melancholic and full of those kinds of lines you have to stop and reread because they somehow explain an entire life. It is not plot-heavy in the traditional sense, but the emotional and intellectual weight of it carried the story.
What I loved most was the way it explored motherhood not as something saintly or simple, but as something layered, private, consuming and often invisible. There is such a powerful thread throughout the novel about how women disappear into the roles they are expected to play - mother, wife, daughter - and how much of themselves they bury in order to outwardly survive.
“That is a mother’s job… to hide the self, the fears and rages, to present a surface that is calm, that is steady, that is safe. They think of it as a kind of generosity but really it’s a disappearance.”
Honestly, that line alone could have carried an entire book.
The relationship between mothers and daughters is handled so beautifully here. The novel understands that daughters spend so much of their lives trying to fit into the shape their mothers made for them, while also quietly trying to break out of it. There is love, frustration, admiration, resentment, guilt, duty and tenderness all mixed together in a way that felt incredibly true.
The Iranian cultural backdrop added so much richness to the story. The one-year mourning ritual gave the book a beautiful structure - moving through one full turn of the seasons before grief loosens its grip. There is something so moving about the idea that mourning takes a whole year to settle into your bones. One summer, one autumn, one winter, one spring.
I also loved the immigrant observations woven throughout. They were some of the sharpest, most memorable parts of the book for me because they captured that very specific survival mentality - the constant “what if something happens?” mindset, the saving, the preparing, the understanding that stability can disappear at any moment. The author captures a whole inherited worldview - the fear, the vigilance, the knowledge that security is fragile. The book is full of those moments where it suddenly zooms out and says something huge about women, immigrants, daughters, grief or family in a way that feels both specific and universal.
The writing itself is lovely. It feels lyrical without becoming overwritten, philosophical without losing its emotional core. There are so many beautiful reflections on poetry, womanhood and transformation.
“Poetry comes from the space between dimensions, where you can linger outside of time, between things.”
This is one of those books where the atmosphere and the ideas matter just as much as the story itself. It is interested in what women inherit from each other - not just objects or traditions, but silence, fear, duty, resilience, rage, softness, sacrifice and survival. It asks whether we can ever truly know our mothers, or whether we only ever know the version of them they allowed us to see.
This is a novel to sit with, underline, think about and carry around long after you finish it.
“This is what happens when you do not mourn the dead, they come back any way they can.”
A beautiful, intelligent and deeply moving meditation on grief, daughters, mothers and the hidden lives women carry beneath the roles they inherit.
A daughter spends a year mourning her mother, only to discover that grief is not the end of knowing someone. Sometimes it is where the real understanding begins.
The story follows Heti in the year after her mother’s death as she prepares for the traditional one-year remembrance ritual expected of the eldest daughter in an Iranian family. Alongside her grief, mysterious packages begin arriving at her home, revealing fragments of her mother’s life, desires, fears and inner world that Heti never knew. Throughout the year, Heti also finds herself in a series of conversations with people both intimate and unexpected - family members, strangers, old connections and chance encounters - each one revealing another layer of what it means to be a woman, a daughter and a mother.
This book felt like grief wrapped in poetry. It is quiet, philosophical, melancholic and full of those kinds of lines you have to stop and reread because they somehow explain an entire life. It is not plot-heavy in the traditional sense, but the emotional and intellectual weight of it carried the story.
What I loved most was the way it explored motherhood not as something saintly or simple, but as something layered, private, consuming and often invisible. There is such a powerful thread throughout the novel about how women disappear into the roles they are expected to play - mother, wife, daughter - and how much of themselves they bury in order to outwardly survive.
“That is a mother’s job… to hide the self, the fears and rages, to present a surface that is calm, that is steady, that is safe. They think of it as a kind of generosity but really it’s a disappearance.”
Honestly, that line alone could have carried an entire book.
The relationship between mothers and daughters is handled so beautifully here. The novel understands that daughters spend so much of their lives trying to fit into the shape their mothers made for them, while also quietly trying to break out of it. There is love, frustration, admiration, resentment, guilt, duty and tenderness all mixed together in a way that felt incredibly true.
The Iranian cultural backdrop added so much richness to the story. The one-year mourning ritual gave the book a beautiful structure - moving through one full turn of the seasons before grief loosens its grip. There is something so moving about the idea that mourning takes a whole year to settle into your bones. One summer, one autumn, one winter, one spring.
I also loved the immigrant observations woven throughout. They were some of the sharpest, most memorable parts of the book for me because they captured that very specific survival mentality - the constant “what if something happens?” mindset, the saving, the preparing, the understanding that stability can disappear at any moment. The author captures a whole inherited worldview - the fear, the vigilance, the knowledge that security is fragile. The book is full of those moments where it suddenly zooms out and says something huge about women, immigrants, daughters, grief or family in a way that feels both specific and universal.
The writing itself is lovely. It feels lyrical without becoming overwritten, philosophical without losing its emotional core. There are so many beautiful reflections on poetry, womanhood and transformation.
“Poetry comes from the space between dimensions, where you can linger outside of time, between things.”
This is one of those books where the atmosphere and the ideas matter just as much as the story itself. It is interested in what women inherit from each other - not just objects or traditions, but silence, fear, duty, resilience, rage, softness, sacrifice and survival. It asks whether we can ever truly know our mothers, or whether we only ever know the version of them they allowed us to see.
This is a novel to sit with, underline, think about and carry around long after you finish it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 78 reviews