HONEYMOON IN TEHRAN

Both a love story and a reporter’s first draft of history Honeymoon in Tehran is a stirring, trenchant and deeply personal chronicle of two years in the maelstrom of Iranian life.

In 2005, Azadeh Moaveni, longtime Middle East correspondent for Time magazine, returned to Iran to cover the rise of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. As she documents the firebrand leader’s troublesome entry onto the world stage, Moaveni richly portrays a society too often caricatured as the heartland of militant Islam. Mingling with underground musicians, race car drivers, young radicals and scholars, she explores the cultural identity crisis and class frustration that pits Iran’s next generation against the Islamic system. Honeymoon in Tehran is a story about a young woman’s tenuous life in a country she had hoped she could change.

Reviews • Reading Guide

LIPSTICK JIHAD

A young Iranian-American journalist returns to Tehran and discovers not only the oppressive and decadent life of her Iranian counterparts who have grown up since the revolution, but the pain of searching for a homeland that may not exist. As Azadeh Moaveni leads us through the drug-soaked, underground parties of Tehran, into the hedonistic lives of young people desperate for change, Moaveni paints a rare portrait of Iran’s rebellious next generation. The landscape of her Tehran — ski slopes, fashion shows, malls and cafes — is populated by a cast of young people whose exuberance and despair brings the modern reality of Iran to vivid life.

“Lipstick Jihad is as hip as the pormise of its title, insightful, smart and often profoundly moving…Moaveni writes stunningly well.” Chicago Tribune

“Moaveni has a journalist’s eye for…struggle and a memoirist’s knack for finding meaning in her own internal conflicts.” Washington Post Book World

“Lipstick Jihad’s tug between objective reporting and Moaveni’s subjectivity as an Iranian woman shines a fascinating light on a nation at odds with itself…A-” Entertaiment Weekly

IRAN AWAKENING, with Shirin Ebadi

The moving, inspiring memoir of one of the great women of our times, Shirin Ebadi, winner of the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize and advocate for the oppressed, whose spirit has remained strong in the face of political persecution and despite the challenges she has faced raising a family while pursuing her work.

“Ebadi… has written a memoir that is both a deft history of postrevolutionary Iran and a genuinely intimate recollection. It is fast-paced, suspenseful, and spare.”

The New York Times Book Review

“A riveting account of a brave, lonely struggle…[Iran Awakening] sometimes reads like apolice thrillers, its drama heightened by Ebadi’s determination to keep up the quotidian aspects of her family life.”

The Washington Post Book World

“A must read…may be the most important book you could read this year,”

Seattle Post-Intelligencer