The Good Daughter: My Mother's Hidden Life

'With this one word, Lili had finally understood many things: that no matter what she promised or sacrificed or gave, she would always be 'broken' to her daughter.' When Jasmin Darznik finds a photo among her father's possessions shortly after his death, she recognises the child in the veil and bride's clothes as her mother, but the groom is unfamiliar. Who had her mother married all those years before? A few months later, packages begin to arrive - her mother, reluctant to talk face to face, sends Jasmin ten cassette tapes that year, and together those tapes reveal the secret history of Jasmin's family. Gradually she learns the truth about the man her mother married when she was just a girl, and about the other daughter, the Good Daughter, who she had had to leave behind in Iran when Jasmin's family moved to the States. As well as giving a fascinating insight into life in Iran, this is an unforgettable story of women's lives lived unknowingly in parallel, of secrets, lies, betrayal and exile, and of the insufferable mother-daughter bond.