How embracing her heritage allowed Sanam Mahloudji to write ‘The Persians’

Shirin Valiat is a lot.
The Houston event planner is bold, opinionated, self-absorbed, and maybe not all that grateful for the niece who bails her out after an arrest for attempted prostitution in Aspen. But by the end of “The Persians,” the debut novel from Sanam Mahloudji, you too might be affectionately referring to her as “Auntie Shirin.”
Indeed, “Auntie Shirin” is the title of Mahloudji’s original short story, published in McSweeney’s Quarterl