Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
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Reading Lolita in Tehran
A Memoir in Books

Author: Azar Nafisi

Narrator: Azar Nafisi

Unabridged: 17 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/22/2016

Synopsis

Every Thursday morning for two years in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bold and inspired teacher named Azar Nafisi secretly gathered seven of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. As Islamic morality squads staged arbitrary raids in Tehran, fundamentalists seized hold of the universities, and a blind censor stifled artistic expression, the girls in Azar Nafisi’s living room risked removing their veils and immersed themselves in the worlds of Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry James, and Vladimir Nabokov. In this extraordinary memoir, their stories become intertwined with the ones they are reading. Reading Lolita in Tehran is a remarkable exploration of resilience in the face of tyranny and a celebration of the liberating power of literature.

About The Author

Azar Nafisi is a professor at John Hopkins University. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal among others, and is the author of Anti-Terra: A Critical Study of Vladimir Nabokov's Novels. She lives in Washington D.C. with her husband and two children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Oriana on August 01, 2018

In case you don't know about this book yet (though, honestly, how could you not know about this book yet?), it is an absolutely amazing memoir by an Iranian woman who was a professor of English & Persian literature at the University of Tehran before, during, and after the revolution and war with Ira......more

Goodreads review by Tim on February 12, 2023

People with courage and character have my greatest admiration and respect.......more

Goodreads review by Magrat on March 29, 2020

"Para tener una vida completa, hemos de tener la posibilidad de formar y expresar públicamente mundos, sueños, pensamientos y deseos privados, de tener acceso continuo a un diálogo entre los mundos público y privado. ¿De qué otra manera podemos saber que hemos existido, sentido, deseado y temido?" Es......more

Goodreads review by Dagio_maya on July 04, 2021

In un mondo grigio, così come la Rivoluzione islamica impone, Azar Nafisi, docente di Letteratura, ormai fuoriuscita dal sistema accademico, organizza un seminario a casa sua. Tema del seminario e il rapporto tra realtà e finzione letteraria. La realtà è quella di un Iran stravolto e travolto dall’int......more

Quotes

“Remarkable . . . an eloquent brief on the transformative power of fiction.”—The New York Times

“An inspiring account of an insatiable desire for intellectual freedom.”—USA Today

“A poignant, searing tale about the secret ways Iranian women defy the regime. . . . [Nafisi] makes you want to rush back to all these books to experience the hidden aspects she’s elucidated.”—Salon

“A quietly magnificent book . . . [Nafisi’s] passion is irresistible.”—LA Weekly

“Stunning . . . a literary life raft on Iran’s fundamentalist sea . . . all readers should read it.”—Margaret Atwood

“Anyone who has ever belonged to a book group must read this book.”—Geraldine Brooks, author of Horse

“[A] vividly braided memoir . . . anguished and glorious.”—The New Republic

“Certain books by our most talented essayists. . . carry inside their covers the heat and struggle of a life’s central choice being made and the price being paid, while the writer tells us about other matters, and leaves behind a path of sadness and sparkling loss. Reading Lolita in Tehran is such a book.”—The Atlantic Monthly

“Transcends categorization as memoir, literary criticism or social history, though it is superb as all three . . . Nafisi has produced an original work on the relationship between life and literature.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Brilliant . . . So much is right with this book, if not with this world.”—The Boston Globe

“An intimate memoir of life under a repressive regime and a celebration of the vitality of literature . . . as rich and profound as the novels Nafisi teaches.”—The Miami Herald

“[Nafisi] reminds us why we read in the first place.”—Newsday

“I was enthralled and moved by Azar Nafisi’s account of how she defied, and helped others to defy, radical Islam’s war against women. Her memoir contains important and properly complex reflections about the ravages of theocracy, about thoughtfulness, and about the ordeals of freedom—as well as a stirring account of the pleasures and deepening of consciousness that result from an encounter with great literature and with an inspired teacher.”—Susan Sontag

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