Winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize "This novel, barely 200 pages long, is impossible to pin down or categorize. It's about mothers and daughters, nation and exile, and the way forward with hope and pain. It is a masterpiece."--Tayari Jones, "My culture fix," The Times (UK) "The arrival, in translation, of a Swedish-Iranian novelist is a welcome chance to cross the bridge into another version of Scandinavia...'What We Owe', the second novel by Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde, an economist and social entrepreneur, is above all a family story. It knots the experiences of three generations of women into a taut and moving account of grief, a legacy handed down from mother to daughter...[and] refuses sentimental consolations...Terse, urgent prose--ably channelled by Elizabeth Clark Wessel, the translator--gives pace and heft to a novel of contagious trauma."--The Economist "Life is juxtaposed with death, resistance and revolution and rebirth are woven throughout the pages, and what it means to be a wife, daughter, sister, mother, and woman are unflinchingly examined in this book. This book is a powerhouse." --Book Riot "A haunting and emotional tale of survival, of what it means to be a refugee." --The Literary Review "Spare and devastating...Translated--gorgeously and simply--by Wessel, Nahid's sentences are short and thrillingly brutal, and the result is exhilarating. Hashemzadeh Bonde, unafraid of ugliness and seemingly unconcerned with likability, has produced a startling meditation on death, national identity, and motherhood. Always arresting, never sentimental; gut-wrenching, though not without hope." --Kirkus Reviews, STARRED "A book I devoured in one sitting. The voice is fierce and direct and unapologetic . . . One of the best books I've read about the psychological horror of being from post-revolutionary Iran. In this age of continuing dehumanization of Iranians in America, this book is a critical read for us all . . . Gorgeous and vital, this story will haunt its readers." --Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, for The Rumpus "I read this ferocious novel in one sitting, enthralled by the rage of its narrator. Nahid confronts her own suffering with dark humor and noisy honesty, while taking aim at a patriarchal tradition that expects her to be silent." --Leni Zumas, author of Red Clocks "What We Owe is not only a riveting chronicle of immigration and loss but an unsparing interrogation of history itself, both personal and political. For the dying 50-year-old Nahid, her past in revolutionary Iran and her exiled present in Sweden collide into an ongoing, at times unendurable battle for now. By turns brutal, regretful, heartbreaking, and cautiously hopeful, this novel is an instant classic." --Cristina García, author of Here in Berlin "The unusually distilled voice of this potent novel is urgently, unforgettably true. It hit me right in the gut and left me bereft in the most beautiful way." --Elisa Albert, author of After Birth "Here is an extraordinary story of exile, dislocation, and the emotional minefields between mothers and daughters; a story of love, guilt and dreams for a better future, vibrating with both sorrow and an unquenchable joie de vivre. With its startling honesty, dark wit, and irresistible momentum, What We Owe introd --