Women Without Men

Parsipur's layered tales, glittering in a fresh translation, continue to beckon you into a world that is simultaneously scoured by reality, and touched with fable and myth * 2026 International Booker Prize Judges *
Candid, enlightening and entertaining … There’s a sense of glee, where suffering goes out the other side and comes back as exuberance -- John Self * The Times *
Whenever she goes through an experience that might be leveraged for epiphany, catharsis or a clear moral lesson, Parsipur always goes for something more unexpected. It’s this that makes Women Without Men, for all its outlandish moments, profoundly human -- Chris Power * Observer *
Powerful … Parsipur blends magical realism with the heightened drama of a fairy tale, inverting familiar tropes … As the layers of misogyny are peeled back, the work’s full force emerges -- Lucy Popescu * Financial Times *
Parsipur is one of Iran’s most celebrated living writers, and one of our boldest, most original feminists -- Dina Nayeri * Guardian *
Confronting, surreal and laced with Iranian mythology, Women Without Men sweeps you away in just over 100 pages. It is a defiant exploration of sexuality and identity through the interwoven lives of five women as they break free … and imagine a world beyond male control * Service95 *
Gracefully brutal... Parsipur writes with the surface simplicity of a tale-teller. But she drops in prosaic, stinging touches of realism - of gossip, envy, suppressed thoughts and misunderstandings * New York Review of Books *
Using the techniques of both the fabulist and the polemicist, Parsipur continues her protest against traditional Persian gender relations in this charming, powerful novel * Publishers Weekly *
The feminist book that Iran’s regime has failed to silence since the 80s … The UK publication marks a hard-won return for a work that has outlasted bans, by a writer who has survived incarceration and forced displacement -- Hind Elhinnawy * The Conversation *
Parsipur is a courageous, talented woman, and above all, a great writer -- Marjane Satrapi, author of Persepolis
Women Without Men is the best feminist novel I know. It's thrilling, beautiful and hilarious, filled with weird women in transformation and the violent little men desperately trying to control them. I am convinced this novel is in fact a magic trick. Reading it feels like being invited to the rebellious unveiling of an age-old secret. It is both deeply mysterious and clear as water, filled to the brim with undeniable truth -- Johanne Lykke Holm