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They Said They Wanted Revolution
- A Memoir of My Parents
- Narrated by: Neda Toloui-Semnani
- Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins
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They Said They Wanted Revolution
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Summary
From a daughter of Iranian revolutionaries, activists, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers comes a gripping and emotional memoir of family and the tumultuous history of two nations.
In 1979, Neda Toloui-Semnani’s parents left the United States for Iran to join the revolution. But the promise of those early heady days in Tehran was warped by the rise of the Islamic Republic. With the new regime came international isolation, cultural devastation, and profound personal loss for Neda. Her father was arrested and her mother was forced to make a desperate escape, pregnant and with Neda in tow.
Conflicted about her parents’ choices for years, Neda realized that to move forward, she had to face the past head-on. Through extensive reporting, journals, and detailed interviews, Neda untangles decades of history in a search for answers.
Both an epic family drama and a timely true-life political thriller, They Said They Wanted Revolution illuminates the costs of righteous activism across generations.
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Critic reviews
“The book is both richly reflective, informative, and tender in its characterizations…a generous and heartfelt search for personal and familial identity.”—Kirkus Reviews
“[Neda] Toloui-Semnani movingly reflects on how disconnected she felt from her Iranian roots while growing up in Washington, D.C., and weaves in diary excerpts and correspondence from her first trip back to Iran, in 2003. The result is an intimate and vital study of the Iranian diaspora.”—Publishers Weekly
“Illuminating, poignant. An inspiring read.”—Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran