Persian Letters
Author: Mehrdad Rafiee
Edited by Debra Hamilton
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This memoir is written in the form of letters addressed to Mehrdad Rafiee's sons. Mehrdad tells his life story, with diversions into Persian/Iranian history and politics, drawing parallels between the turmoil in his country and that in his life. In writing his memoirs, Mehrdad was inspired by the books of two very special writers: Orhan Pamuk’s Istanbul: Memories and the City, and Azar Nafisi’s Things I’ve Been Silent About.
For anyone familiar with modern Iran, Persian Letters will inform and entertain, as it explains much that lies behind the changes and the culture of Iran and its people.
Mehrdad Rafiee grew up in Iran at a time of constant change. Born in 1950 in Abadan, as the oil industry was being nationalized, he went to high school in Kazeroun during the White Revolution of 1963, and attended university in Tehran in the years of social upheaval that led to the Islamic revolution. Mehrdad has lived in Australia since 1985.