What critics are saying…

“I was enthralled and moved by Azar Nafisi’s account of how she defied, and helped others to defy, radical Isalam’s war against women. “  -  Susan Sontag

“…You will be taken inside a culture, and on a journey, that you will never forget.”
 - Jacki Lyden, National Public Radio

“This book 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

“Resonant and deeply affecting…An eloquent brief on the transformative powers of fiction-on the refuge from ideology that art can offer to those living under tyranny, and art’s affirmative and subversive faith in the voice of the individual.”  - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“[A] vividly braided memoir …Anguished and glorious.” - Cynthia Ozick, The New Republic

“Certain books by our most talented essayists…carry inside their covers the heat and struggle of 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.”
 - Mona Simpson, The Atlantic Monthly

“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

“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

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

“A sparkling memoir…A spirited tribute both to the classics of world literature and to the resistance against oppression.” - Kirkus Review (starred review)

“As timely as it is well-written…As the world seems to further divide itself into them and us, Nafisi reminds her readers of the folly of thinking in black and white.” - Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Reading Lolita in Tehran is much more than a literary memoir; it becomes a tool for teaching us how to construe literature in a new, more meaningful way.” - Library Journal