Full name: In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran

Author: Christopher de Bellaigue Year: 2005 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Memoirs, Non Fiction, History Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780060935368 9780066209807 0060935367 0066209803

The history of Iran in the late twentieth century is a chronicle of religious fervor and violent change -- from the Islamic Revolution that ousted the Shah in favor of a rigid fundamentalist government to the bloody eight-year war with Saddam Hussein's Iraq. But what happened to the hostage-takers, the suicidal holy warriors, the martyrs, and the mullahs responsible for the now moribund revolution? Is modern Iran a society at peace with itself and the world, or truly a dangerous spoke in the "Axis of Evil"? Christopher de Bellaigue, a Western journalist married to an Iranian woman and a longtime resident of a prosperous suburb of Tehran, offers a stunning insider's view of a culture hitherto hidden from American eyes, and reveals the true hearts and minds of an extraordinary people.