Jasmin Darznik Book order

"To take a truly good picture you have to learn to see, not just look." In 1918, a young and bright-eyed Dorothea Lange arrives in San Francisco, where a disaster kick-starts a new life. Her friendship with Caroline Lee, a vivacious, straight-talking Chinese American with a complicated past, gives Dorothea entrée into Monkey Block, an artists' colony and the bohemian heart of the city. Dazzled by Caroline and her friends, Dorothea is catapulted into a heady new world of freedom, art, and politics. She also finds herself unexpectedly falling in love with the brilliant but troubled painter Maynard Dixon. Dorothea and Caroline eventually create a flourishing portrait studio, but a devastating betrayal pushes their friendship to the breaking point and alters the course of their lives. The Bohemians captures a glittering and gritty 1930s San Francisco, with a cast of unforgettable characters including cameos from such legendary figures as Mabel Dodge Luhan, Frida Khalo, Ansel Adams, and D.H. Lawrence. A vivid and absorbing portrait of the past, The Bohemians shows how the gift of friendship and the possibility of self-invention persist against the ferocious pull of history. As Dorothea sheds her innocence, her purpose is awakened and she grows into the figure we know from history - the artist whose iconic Depression-era photographs like "Migrant Mother" broke the hearts and opened the eyes of a nation. -- From dust jacket

"Although she is told that daughters should be quiet and modest, Forugh Farrokhzad finds ways to rebel--gossiping with her sister in the rose garden, composing poems behing her closed bedroom door, sneaking out with a teenage paramour. As a young woman in the 1950s, Forugh flees her forced marriage, returns to Tehran, and falls into a love affair. When her newfound freedom finds its voice on the page, her published poems--brilliant and utterly scandalous--polarize Iranian society. Unwilling to return to a traditional life, Forugh continues to live by her own rules, finding fulfillment and success--but at enormous cost. This spellbinding debut novel is about a trailblazing woman who defied society's expectations to find her voice and her destiny. Song of a Captive Bird captures the tenacity, passion, and conflicting desires of a rebellious spirit who, to this day, continues to inspire women around the world."--From back cover

When the author 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? This title presents the story of the insufferable mother-daughter bond.