Publishers Weekly
01/28/2019
In this riveting memoir, French journalist Minoui revisits a decade she spent in Iran, beginning in 1997. As a child growing up in Paris, Minoui considered herself French, even though her father had emigrated from Iran. After she entered adulthood, Minoui yearned to know more about the country of her paternal ancestors, so she successfully pitched a documentary project on Iranian youth to Radio France and packed her bags to explore the volatile and repressive country. Her interest in Iran grew and she decided to stay longer, moving in with her widowed grandmother, who eagerly welcomed her and shared family secrets. The story is full of suspense and surprises: at a new friend’s clandestine party early on, Minoui is frightened and dismayed when the “morality police” arrive seeking to arrest women who have thrown off their chadors (head covering) and are dancing and drinking alcohol. As she plumbs Iran’s complex political landscape, including political protests and social unrest, Minoui is interrogated by police, and, later, her press pass is revoked by the Ministry of Culture. The powerful underlying story is one of love of family and admiration for the courage and passion of the Iranian people. Readers will be spellbound by this profound and gripping memoir of a woman’s search for knowledge, understanding, and self-identity. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"Delphine Minoui's poignant new book is a love letter, by turns devastating and joyful, to a country and a people whose history is deeply intertwined with that of the West. Lucidly observed and passionately explored, the Iran of her telling will be a revelation as much to the expert as to the uninitiated."
—Gina B. Nahai, author of The Luminous Heart of Jonah S. and Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith
"[Delphine Minoui] weaves the implications of international affairs and strife with family identity and pride in a way that only a talented journalist could."
—Sophie Matthews, Women.com
"Compelling . . . Minoui’s account of her search for her own heritage is gripping."
—Laurna Strikwerda, The Christian Century
"Riveting . . . Full of suspense and surprises . . . Readers will be spellbound by this profound and gripping memoir of a woman's search for knowledge, understanding, and identity."
—Publishers Weekly
“This poignant memoir by a French Iranian journalist in the form of a letter to her deceased grandfather recounts a deeply felt 10-year journey to immerse herself in what it means to be Iranian . . . A uniquely rendered chronicle of one woman's personal and professional journey from faith to activism.”
—Kirkus
“Exceptional . . . Sensitivity, doubt, and heart each have their part here, in such a way that we ourselves enter into the reality of today’s Iran, a reality much richer—and more promising—than we imagine.”
—Jean-Claude Guillebaud, Téléobs
“With an inextinguishable curiosity and an independent spirit that neither love for the people nor fear of the regime can dampen she paints . . . an extraordinary gallery of portraits . . . A passionate plunge into a society that is diverse, surprising, dynamic, oppressed . . . The author listens with the subtlety of a writer and the precision of a reporter.”
—Philippe Gélie, Le Figaro Littéraire
"A contemporary and intimate vision of Iran.”
—Livres Hebdo
"[Delphine Minoui] relates, with the scrupulousness of a notary clerk, the banal, the frightening, and even the marvelous . . . [She] measures everything. And these precise measurements taken over the course of all these years deliver an Iran full of the essence both of humanity and of the divine."
—Jean-Louis le Touzet, Libération
“A very beautiful book . . . [I'm Writing You from Tehran] crosses personal history with contemporary Iranian history."
—Xavier Frère, Républicain Lorrain
Kirkus Reviews
2019-01-14
This poignant memoir by a French Iranian journalist in the form of a letter to her deceased grandfather recounts a deeply felt 10-year journey to immerse herself in what it means to be Iranian.
A year after her grandfather's death in 1997, just when the reformist Mohammad Khatami had been elected to great hope and fanfare, Le Figaro Middle East correspondent Minoui (co-author: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, 2010), who was born in Paris to a French mother and Iranian father, landed in Tehran, hoping to learn more about her heritage. For the next 10 years, she stayed on and off with her surviving grandmother and traveled around the country, interviewing people of different classes and political beliefs and learning about the violent vagaries of Iranian politics. At first, with the election of Khatami, the hope among citizens under age 25 was palpable; after enduring decades of Islamic oppression after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the people's mood was wildly optimistic and confident. In spite of the widespread influence of the "morality police," the youth daringly held mixed, alcohol-fueled parties behind closed doors, openly protested, and supported a vibrant "reformist press." Yet soon enough, Minoui became aware of the dark underside of Iranian society and institutions that would soon turn ugly and menacing—e.g., the appearance of intelligence agents who tracked her movements and interrogated her threateningly and the prowling of radical rightist militiamen, one of whom Minoui befriended to figure out how they think. Ultimately, as the author writes in one of many moments of pointed insight, "to research your country's history was to uncover your own story, too," and she learned intimately of her grandfather's tangled past. With the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "a veritable machine to crush modern Iran had been set in motion," and she left the country in 2009.
A uniquely rendered chronicle of one woman's personal and professional journey from faith to activism.
