I M Writing You From Tehran

Author : Delphine Minoui
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 320 pages
File Size : 44,8 Mb
Release : 2019-04-02
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780374716578

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I'm Writing You from Tehran by Delphine Minoui Pdf

A lucid, moving view into an often obscured part of our world, exploring notions of democracy, identity, and the resilience of the human spirit In the wake of losing her beloved grandfather, Delphine Minoui decided to visit Iran for the first time since the revolution. It was 1998. She was twenty-two and a freshly minted journalist. She would stay for ten years. Quickly absorbed into the everyday life of the city, Minoui attends secret dance parties that are raided by the morality police and dines in the home of a young couple active in the Basij—the fearsome militia. She befriends veteran journalists battling government censorship, imprisoned student poets, and her own grandmother (a woman who is discovering the world of international affairs through her contraband satellite TV). And so it is all the more crushing when the political situation falters. Minoui joins street protests teeming with students hungry for change and is interrogated by the secret police; she sees a mirrored rise in the love of country—the yearning patriotism of the left, the militant nationalism of the right. Friends disappear; others may be tracking her movements. She finds love, loses her press credentials, marries, and is separated from her husband by erupting global conflict. Through it all, her love for Iran and its people deepens. In her family’s past she discovers a mission that will shape her entire future. Framed as a letter to her grandfather and filled with disarming characters in momentous times, I’m Writing You from Tehran is a remarkable blend of global history, family memoir, and the making of a reporter, told by someone both insider and outsider—a child of the diaspora who is a world-class political journalist.

Author : Azar Nafisi
Publisher : Random House
Page : 386 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2003-12-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781588360793

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Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi Pdf

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • We all have dreams—things we fantasize about doing and generally never get around to. This is the story of Azar Nafisi’s dream and of the nightmare that made it come true. For two years before she left Iran in 1997, Nafisi gathered seven young women at her house every Thursday morning to read and discuss forbidden works of Western literature. They were all former students whom she had taught at university. Some came from conservative and religious families, others were progressive and secular; several had spent time in jail. They were shy and uncomfortable at first, unaccustomed to being asked to speak their minds, but soon they began to open up and to speak more freely, not only about the novels they were reading but also about themselves, their dreams and disappointments. Their stories intertwined with those they were reading—Pride and Prejudice, Washington Square, Daisy Miller and Lolita—their Lolita, as they imagined her in Tehran. Nafisi’s account flashes back to the early days of the revolution, when she first started teaching at the University of Tehran amid the swirl of protests and demonstrations. In those frenetic days, the students took control of the university, expelled faculty members and purged the curriculum. When a radical Islamist in Nafisi’s class questioned her decision to teach The Great Gatsby, which he saw as an immoral work that preached falsehoods of “the Great Satan,” she decided to let him put Gatsby on trial and stood as the sole witness for the defense. Azar Nafisi’s luminous tale offers a fascinating portrait of the Iran-Iraq war viewed from Tehran and gives us a rare glimpse, from the inside, of women’s lives in revolutionary Iran. It is a work of great passion and poetic beauty, written with a startlingly original voice. Praise for Reading Lolita in Tehran “Anyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book. Azar Nafisi takes us into the vivid lives of eight women who must meet in secret to explore the forbidden fiction of the West. It is at once a celebration of the power of the novel and a cry of outrage at the reality in which these women are trapped. The ayatollahs don’ t know it, but Nafisi is one of the heroes of the Islamic Republic.”—Geraldine Brooks, author of Nine Parts of Desire

Author : Marjan Kamali
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2019-06-18
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781982107505

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The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali Pdf

A poignant, heartfelt new novel by the award-nominated author of Together Tea—extolled by the Wall Street Journal as a “moving tale of lost love” and by Shelf Awareness as “a powerful, heartbreaking story”—explores loss, reconciliation, and the quirks of fate. Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink. Then Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran. A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square when violence erupts—a result of the coup d’etat that forever changes their country’s future. In the chaos, Bahman never shows. For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she moves on—to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England—until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How is it that you were able to forget me?

Author : Daniel Carleton Gajdusek
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 794 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1991
Category : Afghanistan
ISBN : UCBK:C035797763

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A Year in the Middle East by Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Pdf

Author : Delphine Minoui
Publisher : Picador
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2022-02-03
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1529012333

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The Book Collectors of Daraya by Delphine Minoui Pdf

Author : Nilofar Shidmehr
Publisher : House of Anansi
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 43,5 Mb
Release : 2019-02-05
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781487006037

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Divided Loyalties by Nilofar Shidmehr Pdf

Acclaimed poet Nilofar Shidmehr’s debut story collection is an unflinching look at the lives of women in post-revolutionary Iran and the contemporary diaspora in Canada. The stories begin in 1978, the year before the Iranian Revolution. In a neighbourhood in Tehran, a group of affluent girls play a Cinderella game with unexpected consequences. In the mid 1980s, women help their husbands and brothers survive war and political upheaval. In the early 1990s in Vancouver, Canada, a single-mother refugee is harassed by the men she meets on a telephone dating platform. And in 2003, a Canadian woman working for an international aid organization is dispatched to her hometown of Bam to assist in the wake of a devastating earthquake. At once powerful and profound, Divided Loyalties depicts the rich lives of Iranian women and girls in post-revolutionary Iran and the contemporary diaspora in Canada; the enduring complexity of the expectations forced upon them; and the resilience of a community experiencing the turmoil of war, revolution, and migration.

Author : Marina Nemat
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2008-05-06
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781416537434

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Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat Pdf

Follows the author's tragic childhood in 1980s Iran, which was shaped by war, the Khomeini regime, and her work as a teen anti-propaganda activist, efforts for which she was brutally beaten and sentenced to death before a guard offered to save her and protect her family if she would convert to Islam and marry him. Reprint. 40,000 first printing.

Author : Arlene Elle Gray
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2012-08-23
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781477146323

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Letters From Iran by Arlene Elle Gray Pdf

Having a daughter serving in the Peace Corps, prompted me to publish, Letters from Iran, written forty years ago. The experiences of mine remain relevant today. The complex world with its problems is much like the situation forty years ago. These letters express the adjustment from being a strange foreigner, to becoming a beloved friend within the sphere of the friends, neighbors and acquaintances made while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Babol, Iran from 1970-1972. I am now the age my parents were when these letters were written. I am facing retirement and aging and feel gratitude for the example my parents gave me of living vibrantly into old age. Both Mom and Dad lived into their nineties, proof that an active lifestyle maintains quality of life. Living for twenty five months in Iran changed my life, changed my attitudes about foreigners and deepened my philosophy that people are basically good. Learning the language, the customs, living among the people made this possible. I am deeply grateful to the friends mentioned in these letters. Contact with the Iranian families was lost within a year. Desire to return for a visit to Iran lingers in my heart. Christmas letters have kept me in touch with the Collins family. My sisters and I remain close. I married David Gray six weeks after returning to the States on furlough. We are blessed with four children; Mark Irving, Stephanie Ann, Brian Leroy and Timothy Alan. Our home is in Bismarck, North Dakota.

Author : Azar Nafisi
Publisher : Random House
Page : 369 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2008-12-30
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781588367495

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Things I've Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi Pdf

"Absorbing . . . a testament to the ways in which narrative truth-telling—from the greatest works of literature to the most intimate family stories—sustains and strengthens us.”—O: The Oprah Magazine In this stunning personal story of growing up in Iran, Azar Nafisi shares her memories of living in thrall to a powerful and complex mother against the backdrop of a country’s political revolution. A girl’s pain over family secrets, a young woman’s discovery of the power of sensuality in literature, the price a family pays for freedom in a country beset by upheaval—these and other threads are woven together in this beautiful memoir as a gifted storyteller once again transforms the way we see the world and “reminds us of why we read in the first place” (Newsday). BONUS: This edition contains a Things I've Been Silent About discussion guide. Praise for Things I've Been Silent About “Deeply felt . . . an affecting account of a family’s struggle.”—New York Times “A gifted storyteller with a mastery of Western literature, Nafisi knows how to use language both to settle scores and to seduce.”—New York Times Book Review “An immensely rewarding and beautifully written act of courage, by turns amusing, tender and obsessively dogged.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A lyrical, often wrenching memoir.”—People

Author : Moniro Ravanipour
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2019-07-20
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1081589167

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The Drowned by Moniro Ravanipour Pdf

he Drowned is the translation of Moniro Ravanipour's first novel, Ahl-e Gharq (1989), which brought her overnight nationwide recognition in Iran a decade after the tumultuous Islamic Revolution and a year after the devastating Iran-Iraq War. In general, in this novel, Ravanipour taps the rich culture of southwestern Iran, the region most affected by the destruction of the war, and more specifically, that of Jofreh, the village of her birth, and its inhabitants' lives, customs, beliefs, superstitions, and struggles for survival.

Author : Ali Araghi
Publisher : Melville House
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2021-04-13
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781612199078

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The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi Pdf

“A highly recommended literary page-turner worth a second reading; fans of Gabriel García Márquez will delight in this fantastical—and fantastic novel.”—Library Journal, starred review "Impactful . . . Araghi’s skillful combination of revolutionary politics and magical realism will please fans of Alejo Carpentier."—Publishers Weekly A sweeping, multigenerational epic, this stunning debut heralds the arrival of a unique new literary voice. As a child living in his family's apple orchard, Ahmad Torkash-Vand treasures his great-great-great-great grandfather's every mesmerizing word. On the day of his father's death, Ahmad listens closely as the seemingly immortal elder tells him the tale of a centuries-old family curse . . . and the boy's own fated role in the story. Ahmad grows up to suspect that something must be interfering with his family, as he struggles to hold them together through decades of famine, loss, and political turmoil in Iran. As the world transforms around him, each turn of Ahmad's life is a surprise: from street brawler, to father of two unusually gifted daughters; from radical poet, to politician with a target on his back. These lives, and the many unforgettable stories alongside his, converge and catch fire at the center of the Revolution. Exploring the brutality of history while conjuring the astonishment of magical realism, The Immortals of Tehran is a novel about the incantatory power of words and the revolutionary sparks of love, family, and poetry--set against the indifferent, relentless march of time.

Author : Alka Kumar,Anna Triandafyllidou
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 323 pages
File Size : 49,8 Mb
Release : 2023-11-04
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9783031413483

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Migration and Identity through Creative Writing by Alka Kumar,Anna Triandafyllidou Pdf

This open access book brings together storytelling and self-narrative, creative writing and narrative enquiry to explore a variety of topics in migration from an experiential lens. The volume is hybrid and multi-genre as it contains both scholarly chapters grounded in academic perspectives, as well as personal essays and creative non-fiction. In addition to critical reflections on key migration topics and concepts – like, identity and diversity, integration and agency, transnationalism and return – the scholarly chapters also propose a particular methodology for ‘workshopping’ migration narratives, and writing about (personal) lived experiences through iterations of scientific reflection, narrative enquiry, and creative imagination. The book explores the potential of a new conceptual paradigm and methodological process to learn more, and also `differently,’ about the migration experience. Finally, this volume asks a bigger question too – how do we define the boundaries of research; is it possible to entirely separate the spatial, temporal and methodological parameters in which projects are developed and pursued; and how can the specifics of these multiple contexts contribute to shaping the knowledge being produced?

Author : Poupeh Missaghi
Publisher : Coffee House Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2020-02-04
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781566895736

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trans(re)lating house one by Poupeh Missaghi Pdf

In the aftermath of Iran’s 2009 election, a woman undertakes a search for the statues disappearing from Tehran’s public spaces. A chance meeting alters her trajectory, and the space between fiction and reality narrows. As she circles the city’s points of connection—teahouses, buses, galleries, hookah bars—her many questions are distilled into one: How do we translate loss into language? Melding several worlds, perspectives, and narrative styles, trans(re)lating house one translates the various realities of Tehran and its inhabitants into the realm of art, helping us remember them anew.

Author : Salar Abdoh
Publisher : Akashic Books
Page : 148 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2020-09-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9781617758911

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Out of Mesopotamia by Salar Abdoh Pdf

Informed by firsthand experience on the battlefronts of Iraq and Syria, Abdoh captures the horror, confusion, and absurdity of combat from a seldom-glimpsed perspective that expands our understanding of the war novel. "Abdoh’s powerful novel follows an Iranian war reporter who is torn between his wearying job on the front lines and a civilian existence that he finds increasingly alienating. The book is as much a reflection on memory and art as it is a war story, and Abdoh’s writing captures beautifully the absurdity of both the battlefield and modern life." --New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice “One of a handful of great modern war novels...These wars will not end until we look at what we are doing and what we have done. Abdoh’s novel lifts the veil on the murderous insanity.” --Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Chris Hedges, for ScheerPost "As much a meditation on time and memory as it is a book about war...Abdoh skillfully captures combat's intrinsic absurdity...For many Americans, the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have become abstractions, separated from our lives by geographic as well as psychic boundaries. Abdoh collapses these boundaries, presenting a disjointed reality in which war and everyday life are inextricably entwined...[The novel shines] a brilliant, feverish light on the nature of not only modern war but all war, and even of life itself." --New York Times Book Review "Transcendent." --The Daily Beast "A masterful, stylish novel told from the perspective of a disaffected Iranian writer who is drawn to the militias fighting in Syria and Iraq. Abdoh beautifully illustrates the paradoxes of war in the field and on the home front, alternating moments of brutality and comradeship and showing war's pointless heroisms, its random accidents, its absurdities, and its ongoing human costs. This is at once a probing look at the disaster in Syria and Iraq, and an affectionate yet gimlet-eyed view of masculinity, art, and cultural politics." --The Millions, One of the Most-Anticipated Books of 2020 "Abdoh explores the lives behind the war-torn headlines in a way that captures the full humanity of the participants. Channeling a bit of Tim O'Brien and a good deal of Joseph Heller, he has written the best novel to date on the Middle East's ceaseless wars." --Library Journal, STARRED review Saleh, the narrator of Out of Mesopotamia, is a middle-aged Iranian journalist who moonlights as a writer for one of Iran's most popular TV shows but cannot keep himself away from the front lines in neighboring Iraq and Syria. There, the fight against the Islamic State is a proxy war, an existential battle, a declaration of faith, and, for some, a passing weekend affair. After weeks spent dodging RPGs, witnessing acts of savagery and stupidity, Saleh returns to civilian life in Tehran but finds it to be an unbearably dislocating experience. Pursued by his official handler from state security, opportunistic colleagues, and the woman who broke his heart, Saleh has reason to again flee from everyday life. Surrounded by men whose willingness to achieve martyrdom both fascinates and appalls him, Saleh struggles to make sense of himself and the turmoil in his midst. An unprecedented glimpse into "endless war" from a Middle Eastern perspective, Out of Mesopotamia follows in the tradition of the Western canon of martial writers--from Hemingway and Orwell to Tim O'Brien and Philip Caputo--but then subverts and expands upon the genre before completely blowing it apart. Drawing from his firsthand experience of being embedded with Shia militias on the ground in Iraq and Syria, Abdoh gives agency to the voiceless while offering a meditation on war that is moving, humane, darkly funny, and resonantly true.

Author : Dylan Thomas
Publisher : Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Page : 1727 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2014-10-23
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9781780229171

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Dylan Thomas: The Collected Letters by Dylan Thomas Pdf

Dylan Thomas's letters bring the fascinating and tempestuous poet and his times to life in a way that no biography can. The letters begin in the poet's schooldays and end just before his death in New York at the age of 39. In between, he loved, wrote, drank, begged and borrowed his way through a flamboyant life. He was an enthusiastic critic of other writers' work and the letters are full of his thoughts on the work of his contemporaries, from T.S. Eliot and W.H. Auden to Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis. More than one hundred new letters have been added since Paul Ferris edited the first edition of the COLLECTED LETTERS in 1985. They cast Thomas's adolescence in Swansea and his love affair with Caitlin into sharper focus. A lifetime of letters tell a remarkable story, each taking the reader a little further along the path of the poet's self-destruction, but written with such verve and lyricism that somehow the reader's sympathies never quite abandon him. The definitive collection of Dylan Thomas's letters reprinted to celebrate the centenary of his birth and featuring a bold new livery.