My Life as a Traitor, Zarah Ghahramani
My Life as a Traitor, Zarah Ghahramani
1 Rating(s)
List: $21.95 | Sale: $15.37
Club: $10.97

My Life as a Traitor
An Iranian Memoir

Author: Zarah Ghahramani

Narrator: Marjanne Dorée

Unabridged: 7 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/26/2007

Synopsis

Zarah Ghahramani was born in Tehran in 1981, two years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to establish the Islamic Republic. Her life changed suddenly in 2001 when, after having taken part in student demonstrations, she was arrested—literally snatched off the street by secret police—and charged with "inciting crimes against the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran."While imprisoned in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, she faced brutal interrogation, her head was shaved, and she was beaten. After being released, she was forbidden to return to the university and soon realized that she had no future in her native land.Robert Hillman, an Australian writer, met and befriended Zarah in Iran in 2003 and helped her to escape to Australia, where she now has permanent residency. My Life as a Traitor is a beautifully written memoir of Zarah's life in Iran, revealing the human face behind the turmoil of the modern Middle East.

About Zarah Ghahramani

Zarah Ghahramani was born in Tehran in 1981. After her release from prison, she moved to Australia. My Life as a Traitor is her first book.

About Marjanne Dorée

Marjanne Dorée is an actress of Iranian descent. After moving around several countries, her parents settled in Seattle in the 1980s. She lived there until the age of eighteen then moved to New York to attend a drama conservatory. Upon graduation she moved to New York City, where she now lives and works as an actress in theater, film, and television.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Chris

Courtesy of The Literary Snob *May Contain Minor Spoilers* From the beginning, I wanted to hate this book. Essentially promoted as “a young girl is tortured by Iranian zealots,” I suspected nothing more than page after page of anti-Iranian propaganda. I hear enough about how evil every other political......more

Goodreads review by Gary

A harrowing and eye-opening first hand account of the excruciating and hideous tortures inflicted on a 19 year old student in Iran arrested and jailed for speaking up for justice and freedom in her country. Zarah Ghahramani was born in 1981 and lived through the Iran-Iraq War. Her father was a civil......more

Quotes

“Narrator Marjanne Dorée speaks in three languages, each appropriate to the context: perfect American English for the author’s words, English with a genuine Farsi accent when Iranians are speaking, and Farsi for Persian names and places. Her linguistic skill brings a picturesque authenticity to each situation. Her gentle and taciturn voice can switch from shocking, when recounting the guards’ profanities, to warm, when describing the author’s mother and father. Ghahramani’s vehicle of placing herself in the milieu of her country’s turmoil creates a colorful self-portrait.” AudioFile

Awards

  • San Francisco Chronicle Best Book
Add to Cart
Add to Wish List