Friday, September 05, 2008

A family's struggles in Iran


The Septembers of Shiraz, by Dalia Sofer, provides a portrait of a Jewish-Iranian family whose lives are torn apart by the Iranian revolution. A gem dealer in Tehran, Isaac is arrested and wrongly accused of being a Zionist spy. It is a terrible time in Iran, when those who have materially benefited during the reign of the Shah are singled out and persecuted. Isaac suffers physically and mentally in prison, but his family suffers also, as they struggle to maintain a degree of normalcy without knowing exactly what Isaac is going through. His son had been sent to New York to school, and his daughter is too young to fully understand what is happening. Although this is a haunting story that is sometimes difficult to read, the strength of the individual family members is encouraging and inspiring.

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