My eyes hold deep, dark craters beneath them that stand proudly as testament to this tale's ability to cause a tired human (me!) to forfeit sleep to read just...one...more....page. The characters truly do take on lives of their own; even potentially difficult personalities somehow maintaining (either throughout or eventually) an air of humanity that paints them as entirely three dimensional while set in a very difficult and tumultous time. There was a moment or two, had I not been completely captivated by the tale, that I would have liked to put the book down to mourn a little for lost humanity.

I devoured the book in less than two evenings.

If I had any complaints at all it would be the seemingly all too easy (and quick!) descent of one of the main characters (not saying much to give little away). The end also seemed quick, a wrap-up not unlike an old mystery tale where the detective stands amidst a crowd of suspects deftly unraveling the crime and fingering the guilty in one tidy scene. Do not let that dissuade you though, it is a more a symptom of there being space and desire to lengthen/prolong this book rather than it taking away from the act of experiencing it.

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Western woman marries handsome Iranian student and returns to his homeland with him, just in time for the revolution.

This was a real 3 star for me. I liked it well enough, but not more. It's well written, clearly well researched, and it certainly kept me turning pages. It just felt like it went off the rails at some point, and devolved into an weird murder mystery with a slightly too deus ex machina ending. For me at least.

Right up until then, I would have rated it somewhat higher probably. But since I can't unread that part, well, so be it.

If you're interested in the Iranian revolution (it's really a fascinating time and place to read about) I can highly recommend Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis which, despite being non-fiction, a graphic novel and from the perspective of a child, is really rather spectacular. If you're interested in life as a western woman in the middle east (and particularly how one might extricate oneself from there, a perspective I was hoping would be covered in this book, but was instead almost ignored), well there's plenty of those, probably the most well known being Betty Mahmoody's "Not Without My Daughter" (you may well have seen the film which I found a little bit hysterical, but the book is actually rather good).

I'd consider reading more by this author though, as said, the writing is good and for most of the book she had me. ( )

3.5***

For this historical thriller, Hellmann has chosen the time frame of 1977-1980, during the Iranian Revolution. Anna Schroder meets fellow grad student Nouri Samedi in a Chicago bookstore. They share a love of poetry, which is what begins their relationship. Despite their different cultures, they find in each other qualities which complete them, and fall in love. But when they return to Nouri’s native Iran, Anna is confronted with a greater cultural and religious divide than she had anticipated.

Hellmann has obviously done her research and she presents both sides of the many issues that resulted in the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini (at least in my opinion). I found the lead characters rather naïve, but I reminded myself of their youth and idealism and how each had been somewhat sheltered by his/her family, and went with the flow. I was completely caught up in the story of Anna’s increasing isolation, the limited (or lack of) options, and her resolve.

In the Author Note at the end of the novel, Hellmann explains how the idea for the book came to her – her fascination with a story of one woman’s struggle against seemingly insurmountable obstacles. But, she says, she felt stymied because the story had no crime, and she writes crime fiction. So, on the advice of a friend she invented a crime around which to build her plot. I have news for Hellmann – she does a fine job of writing fiction without the crime (which, in this case, I felt resolved a little too neatly). What I found most interesting about the book was Anna’s journey from a naïve college student to a strong and resourceful young woman.

I’ve passed the book on to my husband, who loves reading about international issues and intrigue. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it as much as I did.
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I was sent this audio book for free by the author; thank you, Libby!

I forgot, while reading this book, that it was fiction, as it felt like a real story. The book was obviously well- researched. I was only slightly older than Anna when all these events happened in Iran. It's about Anna, a college student in Chicago, the daughter of a German physicist father and a French mother (her parents were divorced and she lived with her father, mainly), who meets Nouri Samedi, a wealthy Iranian engineering grad student. They fall in love and after her graduation, they decide to go to Iran and get married, and start a life there. Anna is hoping for a wonderful family life, something she felt she never had with her own family. But political events are happening in Iran, and the setting is just prior to the Shah's fall. At first, her life in Iran is wonderful, her in-laws embrace her, her husband is loving and doting, and Anna starts to make friends with another American woman, also the wife of an Iranian. As all the political upheaval starts to happen, things change in the Samedi household and Nouri doesn't know how to cope with the change. He and his family turn against all things American, including Anna. My only complaint is how quickly Nouri changes for the worst, and without any explanation about why he suddenly falls out of love with Anna. He doesn't talk with her and I'm confused why everything is suddenly her fault, and, literally, it happens almost overnight. I was just as distressed as Anna was, over how horrible her life becomes. I was so angry with Nouri!

The book is beautifully written and I feel like I learned so much about the time, the politics, and Iran as a country, and about the people. I was wary of Anna marrying Nouri and moving to Iran from the beginning, as I immediately thought about the book, Not Without My Daughter, and knew what dangers Anna would face once married and living in that society, and how her rights as a woman would be eroded.

I highly recommend this book, and I loved the audio narration. I could hardly wait for my daily commute to/from work each day, just so I could listen! Kudos to the author for a wonderful, believable story about true events that I remember so well happening in my youth. ( )

A Bitter Veil by Libby Fischer Hellmann Narrated by, Diane Piron Gelman

A Fascinating look at a time of turmoil in Iran with the fall of the Shah & the rise of the Ayatollah. This book felt very well researched and wasn’t a slam on an entire country or religion. We meet a young couple in love in America, Nouri and Anna they are young and in love Nouri is Iranian but this makes no difference to Anna in fact she is looking forward to the day they make their home in Iran. However Iran is in the beginning stages of upheaval and when the Shah falls everything in Nouri & Anna’s life changes too and definitely not for the better.

I found this story fascinating in how fast people’s allegiances and loyalty and personalities changed with the revolution and how many different reasons for the changes. Anne married a sweet man in Nouri who was involved in human rights activism while he was studying in the US and even after they had gotten to Iran he seemed to still hold the same beliefs until after the fall of the Shah and Nouri is arrested he comes back a very different man and Anna’s whole life changes.

I don’t want to give too much away about what happens between Nouri and Anna but let’s say he becomes a different man than she married. The unrest in Iran is fascinating the way the people flip-flopped on what It was they wanted from their country it makes me wonder how different the middle east and Iran in particular would be now if the ones that wanted to embrace the modern and give the rights to everyone had won this particular battle.

The narration by Diane Piron Gelman was very well done her accents weren’t over done and as far as I could tell she did a good job at speaking Farsi and French when called for. I was impressed with her narration as a whole and would listen to her again.

In the author’s afterword she talks about interviewing many Iranian Americans for this story and I felt like this rang true to what I know of this time period. One thing the author said in the afterword is she is a crime writer and needed a crime but I kind of felt like the crimes were on the people of Iran although the crime did add the ending and fit well in the story.

If you are at all interesting in this time period or setting or just a fan of historical fiction I would highly recommend this book.

4 Stars

I received this book from the author & the Audiobookjukebox for a fair and honest review ( )