Book description
Azar Nafisi, author of the international bestseller Reading Lolita
in Tehran, now gives us a stunning personal story of growing up
in Iran, memories of her life lived in thrall to a powerful and
complex mother, against the background 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 political upheaval - these and
other threads are woven together in this beautiful memoir.
Nafisi's intelligent and complicated mother, disappointed in her
dreams of leading an important and romantic life, created mesmerising
fictions about herself, her family, and her past. But her daughter
soon learned that these narratives of triumph hid as much as they
revealed. Nafisi's father escaped into narratives of another kind,
enchanting his children with classic tales like the Shahnameh,
the Persian Book of Kings. When her father began to see other women,
young Azar began to keep his secrets from her mother. Nafisi's
complicity in these childhood dramas ultimately led her to resist
remaining silent about other personal - as well as political,
cultural, and social - injustices.
Reaching back in time to reflect on other generations in the Nafisi
family, Things I've Been Silent About is also a powerful
historical portrait of a family that spans the many periods of change
leading up to the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79. It is, finally, a
deeply personal reflection on women's choices, and how Azar Nafisi
found the inspiration for a different kind of life. This unforgettable
portrait of a woman, a family, and a troubled homeland is a stunning
book that readers will embrace, a new triumph from an author who is a
modern master of the memoir.
Azar Nafisi is a visiting professor and the director of the
Dialogue Project at the Foreign Policy Institute of Johns Hopkins
University. She has taught Western literature at the University of
Tehran, the Free Islamic University, and the University of Allameh
Tabatabai in Iran. In 1981 she was expelled from the University of
Tehran after refusing to wear the veil. In 1994 she won a teaching
fellowship from Oxford University, and in 1997 she and her family left
Iran for America. She has written for The New York Times,
The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and
The New Republic and has appeared on countless radio and
television programs. She lives in Washington, DC, with her husband and
two children.
www. azarnafisi. com
