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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Neda Toloui-Semnani has given us the most generous book. Like the hyphen in her storied family name, she sits in the liminal, holding two worlds, two nations, two generations together, and suturing with such a deft touch many sides of twin wounds: the loss of her progressive Iranian parents. Toloui-Semnani’s commitment to truth, art, and family is exemplary, showing us all what creative nonfiction can be: journalism as literature, family lore as history, and history as inheritance. This book goes beyond telling a story. It reclaims it, giving back to a brave, intelligent, and dutiful daughter all that she set out to find: revolutionary love that holds together tomorrow, today, and the ever-elusive details of yesterday. They Said They Wanted Revolution made me fall in love with the craft all over again.
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Cinelle Barnes, author of Monsoon Mansion and Malaya