On this episode of At Home With Authors, we call on Nantucket Book Festival alum Azar Nafisi (Class of 2015), because of her experience living through turbulent times – and her use of literature to navigate them.
Azar grew up in Iran, steeped in public life. In the early 1960's, her father served as Tehran’s youngest mayor ever. Her mother became one of Iran’s few female members of parliament. During the revolution in 1979, Azar was teaching English literature at Tehran University, which became a constant struggle under the capricious rule of the clerics.
Ultimately, Azar resigned – and pursued a dream. She chose seven of her most committed female students, and secretly – at great risk -- they gathered at her home each week to discuss great books. That experience formed the basis of her global best-selling memoir, Reading Lolita In Tehran.
In this conversation, she tells us why she finds life in America at this moment eerily reminiscent of her life in Iran after the rise of the Ayatollahs and during the Iran-Iraq war. And in the course of doing so, we get an inspired, impromptu reading list.
