Mary Coin takes inspiration from Dorothea Lange’s iconic "Migrant Mother" photograph, weaving a story of two women—one famous and one forgotten—and their remarkable chance encounter.

In 1936, a young mother resting by the side of a road in Central California is spontaneously photographed by a woman documenting the migrant laborers who have taken to America’s farms in search of work. Little personal information is exchanged, and neither woman has any way of knowing that they have produced what will become the most iconic image of the Great Depression.

Three vibrant characters anchor the narrative of Mary Coin. Mary, the migrant mother herself, emerges as a woman with deep reserves of courage and nerve, harboring private passions and carefully-guarded secrets. Vera Dare, the photographer, wrestles with creative ambition and makes the choice to leave her children to pursue her work. Walker Dodge, a present-day professor of cultural history, discovers a family mystery embedded in the picture.

In luminous, exquisitely rendered prose, Silver creates an extraordinary tale from a brief moment in history, reminding us that although a great photograph can capture the essence of a moment, it only scratches the surface of a life.

From the best-selling author of Persepolis comes a gloriously entertaining and enlightening look into the sex lives of Iranian women. Embroideries gathers together Marjane’s tough-talking grandmother, stoic mother, glamorous and eccentric aunt and their friends and neighbors for an afternoon of tea drinking and talking. Naturally, the subject turns to love, sex, and the vagaries of men.

As the afternoon progresses, these vibrant women share their secrets, their regrets, and their often outrageous stories about, among other things, how to fake one’s virginity, how to escape an arranged marriage, how to enjoy the miracles of plastic surgery, and how to delight in being a mistress. By turns revealing and hilarious, these are stories about the lengths to which some women will go to find a man, keep a man, or, most importantly, keep up appearances.

Full of surprises, this introduction to the private lives of some fascinating women, whose life stories and lovers will strike us as at once deeply familiar and profoundly different from our own, is sure to bring smiles of recognition to the faces of women everywhere—and to teach us all a thing or two.