Whilst many stories have come out of Iran in the last few decades, nothing matches the grittiness of this portrayal of life in the crumbling alleyways and damp cellars of an Iranian slum district-the extreme poverty and desperation, and the regular betrayals and compromises, even within families, in the fight for survival. Born on the back seat of a police car in the subzero temperatures of a bleak and icy winter's night, Karimi summons extraordinary and unwavering dedication throughout his childhood to break free of this hopeless existence, culminating in the achievement of his dream to become a surgeon. But the vocation that guarantees freedom from poverty will, for this profoundly compassionate man, inevitably lead to entrapment in a deadly struggle to stay alive in the world of betrayals, brutal tortures and executions by the ruthless Iranian Intelligence Service. The final chapter of this enthralling memoir describes Karimi's nail-biting escape across the border into Turkey, only to be pursued by the nightmares for which he seeks a measure of atonement in the writing of this book.
Sprache
Verlagsort
Illustrationen
Maße
Höhe: 229 mm
Breite: 152 mm
Dicke: 20 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-9871785-0-3 (9780987178503)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Kooshyar Karimi was born in December 1968 in the slums of Tehran. At the age of six, Karimi was compelled to work to contribute to his family's survival and was only eleven when the Islamic Revolution upended his world. Amidst the post-revolutionary chaos and the bloodshed of the Iran-Iraq war, Karimi pursued his education through to medical school with a clear determination to avoid war, stay alive, and support his mother whilst pursuing his passion for reading and writing. By the age of 26, he was a published author, award-winning translator, doctor, husband and father. At this time, he began the research for his book, A History of Iranian Jews. This dangerous activity contributed to his being kidnapped by the Islamic Intelligence Service in the winter of 1998, tortured, burnt, and whipped over 65 days. He was then presented with an unimaginable decision...to spy for MOIS against his own people or to be tortured slowly to death. His forced cooperation was a significant factor in the arrest of thirteen Iranian Jews in March 1999, a case that caused an international outcry.
To end this nightmare and escape his own imminent execution, Karimi called on a fateful connection from the past to flee his country across the border to Turkey. Months of anxiety and despair followed till he and his family were granted a refugee visa to Australia. He is now an Australian citizen, practising medicine full-time in New South Wales, and writing in his spare time.
