Kendra Nordin in The Christian Science Monitor:
Most Americans have some memory of the 444 days the world waited to see if Iranian revolutionaries would release 52 American hostages seized at the American Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979. The bitter feelings from that event are just now beginning to lessen: It was only last month that the United States and Iran sat down for their first diplomatic talks in 27 years.
From a distance, the Iranian revolution remains in the realm of political power plays. But to the Iranians who lived — and loved — through it, it was as if the world had gone mad. Books were frowned upon. Public displays of affection became a crime. Schoolchildren were arrested and held prisoner. Many were executed. In Prisoner of Tehran, Marina Nemat chronicles some of what it meant to come of age during this social upheaval. For young Marina, childhood in Tehran has its simple pleasures: a special friendship with a used bookstore owner, a doting Russian grandmother, and summer-long trips to the Caspian Sea.
But as Marina reaches the edge of her teen years, the normal order of daily life begins to unravel.
More here.