Couchsurfing in Iran: Revealing a Hidden World

by Stephan Orth, Jamie McIntosh (Translator)

Overview

Included in the 2018 summer reading list by New York Times Books

A modern-day glimpse into the surprising reality of life in Iran.

Iran: A destination that is seldom seen by westerners yet often misunderstood. A country that simultaneously “enchants and enrages” those who visit it. A place where leading a double life has become the norm.

In Couchsurfing in Iran, award-winning author Stephan Orth spends sixty-two days on the road in this mysterious Islamic republic to provide a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at life in one of the world’s most closed societies. Through the unsurpassed hospitality of twenty-two hosts, he skips the guidebooks and tourist attractions and travels from Persian carpet to bed to cot, covering more than 8,400 kilometers to recount “this world’s hidden doings.” Experiencing daily what he calls the “two Irans” that coexist side by side—the “theocracy, where people mourn their martyrs” in mausoleums, and the “hide-and-seek-ocracy, where people hold secret parties and seek worldly thrills instead of spiritual bliss”—he learns that Iranians have become experts in navigating around their country’s strict laws.

Though couchsurfing is officially prohibited in Iran—the state fears spies would be able to travel undetected through the country—more than a hundred thousand Iranians are registered with online couchsurfing portals. And thanks to these hospitable, English-speaking strangers, Orth gets up close and personal with locals, peering behind closed doors and blank windows to uncover the inner workings of a country where public show and private reality are strikingly opposed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771642811
Publisher:	Greystone Books
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	5 MB

About the Author

Stephan Orth is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author. For nine years, he was online travel editor for Der Spiegel, one of Germany's top news magazines, and he has contributed to National Geographic, the Courier-Mail, and Time Off magazine, among other publications. His next book, Couchsurfing in Russia, will publish in fall 2018. He lives in Hamburg, Germany.

Table of Contents

At the border 1

Welcome to Iran! 6

Down with the U.S. 15

Long live the shah 23

Couchsurfing for beginners 29

Torture 33

Freedom 41

The Persian Gulf 52

Lost in transportation I 60

Aryans 64

The genie 69

Lost in transportation II 74

Earthquakes 82

Art 87

The desert 93

Bureaucracy 100

Fake marriage 105

Lost in transportation III 114

Hide-and-seek 117

Poetry 123

Hiking 129

The red Persian carpet 133

Nuclear power 136

Lost in transportation IV 144

War 150

Backgammon 161

Music 168

Smugglers 171

The police 176

The prince 183

Love 187

News 197

A river without water 200

Dictatorship 207

Drunk to the imam 215

Religion and money 219

Party 223

Lost in visa application 227

Green, white, red 234

Fun 238

Orwell 243

Life's caravan 250

Country of surprises 256

Happy ending 261

Acknowledgments 266

Notes 268

Interviews

"A breezy narrative that offers a couch-level view of Iran that you won't find in travel guides."— Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

"Orth used the internet to launch himself into a fantastical realm that happens to be real."
—Liesl Schillinger, New York Times

"A breezy narrative that offers a couch-level view of Iran that you won't find in travel guides."
—Kirkus Reviews

[Orth"] revels in the small details of Iranian life.
—Morley Walker, Winnipeg Free Press

From the Publisher

2018-03-06
A German-based journalist chronicles his travels to Iran.Throughout this book, Orth, the former online travel editor for Der Spiegel, dispels myths about Iranians, whom he shows to be friendly, flirty (especially in text messages), warm, great dancers, and uncommonly hospitable. When he asked why Iranians hate America, one of his couchsurfing hosts responded, "not the Iranians—the government." As the author demonstrates, when people are connecting with people on a personal level, the enmity that exists on the official level dissipates. One Iranian told Orth something that he loved so much he adopted the adage as his own, and he closes two consecutive chapters with it: "There are no bad places if the reason you are traveling is to meet people." He met a wide variety of people at vacation oases, parties (featuring dancing and alcohol among other forbidden fruits), battlefields that serve as memorials, and especially in homes, where strangers open their doors as hosts. This book is as much about the titular method of vacationing as it is about the destination, as "couchsurfing," though officially forbidden and theoretically in violation of the law, proved to be a particularly effective way of getting to know these people. And the trend is worldwide; the author documents how "fourteen million couchsurfers, hundreds of thousands of members of Hospitality Club, BeWelcome, Global Freeloaders, and Warm Showers, open their doors to strangers." A phenomenon facilitated by the internet and smartphones, couchsurfing allows for cultural exchange outside the conventional channels of tourism, in a realm where money rarely changes hands. It is here that Orth revels in the paradoxes and contradictions he encountered—how Adele can be so popular in a country where women are forbidden to sing in public, how a public stance of religious fundamentalism becomes far more relaxed, even defied, in private, and how Iranians struggle with concepts of courtship and marriage that seem alien to Western visitors.A breezy narrative that offers a couch-level view of Iran that you won't find in travel guides.

Kirkus Reviews