Farangi Girl

by Ashley Dartnell

Overview

Ashley Dartnell's mother was a glamorous American, her father a dashing Englishman, each trying to slough off their past and upgrade to a more romantic and exotic present in Iran. As the story starts, Ashley is eight years old and living in Tehran in the 1960s: the Shah was in power, life for Westerners was rich and privileged. But somehow it didn't all add up to a fairytale. There were bankruptcies and prisons, betrayals and lovers, lies and evasions. And throughout it all, Ashley's passionate and strong-willed mother, Genie.

Stories of mothers and daughters are some of the most compelling in contemporary memoir, from The Liar's Club and The Glass Castle to Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight and Bad Blood. Farangi Girl deserves to be in their company. It's an honest and endlessly recognisable portrait of a mother by a daughter who loved her (and was loved in return).

Against this extraordinary background, Ashley's journey into adulthood was more helter-skelter than most and this portrait of a bewitching and endlessly inventive mother is surprising and deeply moving.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781444714715
Publisher:	Hodder
Publication date:	03/27/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Ashley Dartnell was born in 1960s Tehran to an American mother and an English father. Educated in Tehran, she later graduated from Bryn Mawr and earned her MBA from Harvard Business School. This is her first book.

Ashley lives in London with her husband and three children.

Table of Contents

Iran, 1967-8

1 The Chaloos Road 3

2 Mr Engineer 10

3 What Bad Luck 24

4 Strangers in the Night 31

5 Farangi Girl 37

6 Killing for Sport 46

7 The Snake Dream 51

8 Tea with the Queen 57

9 Dirty Laundry 65

10 The Vulture Story 72

11 Rome is Burning 78

12 Ragg Mopp 87

13 Rice with Ketchup 97

14 Mehrabad Airport 101

America, 1968-71

15 Halls Hill Road 107

16 Push-Me Pull-You 118

17 Clack-Clack Boo-Hoo 131

18 The Squeaky Wheel 147

19 Two Nickels 153

20 I Won 159

21 I've Got Something to Tell You 164

Iran, Summer 1971

22 Like Family 179

Florida, 1971-3

23 Never 191

24 Some Good Men 210

Iran, 1973-6

25 This Isn't Sunny Florida, Missy 223

26 Home to Iran 233

27 Mad Dogs and Englishmen 243

28 Walls Have Mice and Mice Have Ears 257

29 Cold Baths and Brussels Sprouts 274

30 In the Shadow of Damavand 286

31 The Problem of the Soosks 300

32 Drier than the Texas Sand 311

33 Carpenter's Dream, Pirate's Treasure 318

34 Nothing is Simple 325

35 Joanie's College Fund 330

36 Fanning the Flames 341

37 The Whole Story 348

38 Men Are Bastards 356

39 As the Romanians Do 367

40 A Change in the Weather 377

41 In the End 398

Editorial Reviews

'Amid the tumults of a family that reflected the flux of Iranian politics in the 70s, Ashley Dartnell writes her true tale of an astonishing childhood with flair and feeling. A rich and intensely addictive read which teems with the odd particulars that come from real experience - Farangi Girl is an unforgettable book.'—Martina Evans

'Ashley Dartnell's memoir evokes 1960s Iran in all its beauty and turmoil and conjures a wilful, passionate, fascinating woman in its depiction of her mother. This is a vivid, compelling story woven from both politics and desire.'—Maura Dooley, author of Life Under Water

'Crazy, colourful, shocking, compelling. You'll read it straight through once you start.'—Susan Elderkin, author of Sunset over Chocolate Mountains and The Voices

'Engaging . . . a gifted raconteur . . . she weaves an astonishing narrative that keeps us speculating, How on earth will this end?'—The Lady

'Fascinating . . . a desperate quest for sanctuary and redemption which, in the end, discovers solace in the most unexpected of places.'—The Herald

'If there is one book I am glad I read this year - this would have to be it. Beautifully written, full of amazing characters - all the more fascinating for being real - this is the memoir of a woman who has led an extraordinary life... excellent reading.'—South Coast Register

'This memoir is both a fascinating and heartbreaking insight into a childhood interrupted . . . gripping.'—Cosmopolitan Australia - Book Club Choice

'a moving account'—Times Literary Supplement

'a vivid, gripping memoir of childhood in little-known pre-revolutionary Iran.'—Maggie Gee, author of The White Family

'captures the violence of Iran's 1979 revolution - along with finer details, such as the taste of barbari bread with butter and honey, and the exaggerated politeness ta'arof, which drives Persian social life . . . her late American mother Genie looms largest, a potently glamorous woman in the Elizabeth Taylor mould.'—Harper's Bazaar

'compelling memoir of a unique childhood and a fairytale gone wrong.'—The Gloss, Irish Times

Amid the tumults of a family that reflected the flux of Iranian politics in the 70s, Ashley Dartnell writes her true tale of an astonishing childhood with flair and feeling. A rich and intensely addictive read which teems with the odd particulars that come from real experience - Farangi Girl is an unforgettable book—Martina Evans

Ashley Dartnell's memoir evokes 1960s Iran in all its beauty and turmoil and conjures a wilful, passionate, fascinating woman in its depiction of her mother. This is a vivid, compelling story woven from both politics and desire—Maura Dooley, author of Life Under Water

Crazy, colourful, shocking, compelling. You'll read it straight through once you start.—Susan Elderkin, author of Sunset over Chocolate Mountains

Engaging . . . a gifted raconteur . . . she weaves an astonishing narrative that keeps us speculating, How on earth will this end?—The Lady

Farangi Girl is a remarkable memoir, an extraordinary story, brilliantly told. . . . intense as any page-turning novel. Right to the last page the reader wonders, what next? All of this is set against a background of seismic historic events in Iran. Compelling.—Pam Johnson

Fascinating . . . a desperate quest for sanctuary and redemption which, in the end, discovers solace in the most unexpected of places—The Herald

If there is one book I am glad I read this year - this would have to be it. Beautifully written, full of amazing characters - all the more fascinating for being real - this is the memoir of a woman who has led an extraordinary life... excellent reading—South Coast Register

This memoir is both a fascinating and heartbreaking insight into a childhood interrupted . . . gripping—Cosmopolitan Australia - Book Club Choice

a moving account—Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher