Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Nobel Laureate Ebadi's latest (after Iran Awakening) is a moving memoir about the family of her closest friend, Pari, with whom she grew up. "Our mothers had been best friends since they were five or six years old," she writes. "It was a childhood friendship, born from a handful of almond cookies, but it had managed to endure..." Ebadi is Iranian (her Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for her work with women and children there) and the bulk of the story takes place in Tehran. Readers with some knowledge of 20th-century Iranian history will best understand the many details of her tale, which focuses on Pari's three brothers: the loyalist Abbas, middle child Javad (who becomes an extremist), and youngest son, Ali, a military officer. Their stories are each devastating and tragic, but Ebadi's true sympathies lie with women, and it's in telling their tales that Ebadi's writing is best. What's more, the stories of Pari, her mother, and of Ebadi herself give the memoir a humanist scope, making it accessible for those who may lack compassion for the selfish and violent choices made by the men. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Library Journal Review
Currently living in exile in the UK, Nobel Peace Prize winner Ebadi (founder, Centre for the Defence of Human Rights; Iran Awakening: A Memoir of Revolution and Hope) is an Iranian human rights activist, lawyer, former judge-and prolific author. Her latest work recounts growing up in Iran along with the three brothers of her childhood girlfriend Pari. Through the lives of Abbas, Javad, and Ali intertwined with major political events in Iran during those same years, Ebadi assesses how each brother formed his own unique political ideology, setting the path toward each one's distinct future. Raised as an equal with her own brothers, Ebadi only later realized that this was atypical in her homeland. She is staunchly committed to egalitarianism and recounts here a lifetime of turbulence: Pari's family coming apart because of their differences, Ebadi's own stint in solitary confinement for her political beliefs, and the alleged threats by Iranian authorities in 2009 that sent Ebadi out of the country. VERDICT Political science aficionados will enjoy this remembrance of life in late 20-century Iran. Ebadi remains convinced that democracy in Iran can still be adopted successfully.-Krista Bush, Shelton Public Schs., CT (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
