Iran again looms large on the world stage. Rhetoric conjures fear of radical Islam and flashbacks to the Ayatollah Khomeini--images that obscure Iran's rich cultural history as Persia and ignore ordinary people torn between old and new, secular and sacred. Nahid Rachlin fills in the blanks??

Through the touching, tragic story of two sisters, Persian Girls unfolds the entire drama of modern Iran. It's a beautiful, harrowing memoir of the cruelty of men toward women, and it paints the exotic scents and traditions of Tehran with the delicacy of a great novel. If you want to understand Iran, read Nahid Rachlin??

For many years, heartache prevented Nahid Rachlin from turning her sharp novelist's eye inward, to tell the story of how her own life diverged from that of her closest confidante and beloved sister, Pari. Growing up in Iran, both refused to accept traditional Muslim mores, and dreamed of careers in literature and on the stage. Their lives changed abruptly when Pari was coerced by their father into marrying a wealthy and cruel suitor. Nahid narrowly avoided a similar fate, and instead negotiated with her father to pursue her studies in America.

When she received the unsettling and mysterious news that Pari had died after falling down a flight of stairs, Nahid traveled back to Iran--now under the Islamic regime--to find out what had happened to her truest friend, confront her past,and evaluate what the future holds for the heartbroken. This is a tale of crushing sorrow, sisterhood, and ultimately, hope.