Novels set in Iran

My previous post covered Afghanistan, so I thought this one could cover Iran.

The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer
Isaac Amin, a gem trader, is arrested at work by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards one day in September. His crime? Being Jewish in a country that is becoming more and more fanatically muslim. As Isaac languishes in jail, worried about his family and forced to watch the torture and murder of his fellow prisoners, his wife, Farnaz, struggles to keep their family from going under. Shirin, their young daughter, steals files from a friends home to keep other men out of prison, while in Brooklyn, their sond Parviz struggles to make ends meet and falls in love with the daughter of his Hasidic landlord. The dialogue is a little wooden but the story is nicely told. The end was a little too neatly wrapped up for me, but it didn't take away from the overall plot.

Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi.
Azar Nafisi is a brave woman - after resigning from her position as University of Tehran professor, she invited seven of her brightest students to attend a weekly lecture on Western Literature at her home. Only women were invited and since the books they were reading had been banned by the oppressive Iranian government, they were forced to keep their meetings secret and often had to share photocopied pages of the banned books. Through Azar, we come to know her students, not revealed by name so as not to face punishment under Islamic rule. For two years this group met and debated the implications and realities of living under Islamic rule as well as the daily struggle to avoid harassment by the "morality guards." And we also learn a little about each of the novels they chose to read. Some of these are old favorites and you will
enjoy the refresher, others will prompt you to go out and get the book for yourself.