content is absolutely fascinating - i've read several books on Iran this year and had high hopes for this one. The format and idea was a good one. Unfortunately, the writing is overly flowery and overly sensationalistic, which makes the stories increasingly less believable as the book goes on.

Quite an astonishing book by a British Iranian who was Times correspondent in Tehran for a number of years. Beautifully novelistic in its rich prose and creative imagination, but always faithful to the lives and stories of the citizens of a place she loves.

Anyone who wants to get a sense of a society that is oppressed but irrepressible needs to read this book. I couldn't put it down.

My heart went out to people who lie, not maliciously, to deceive, but desperately, to survive.

Short stories, but powerful excerpts of the people of Tehran. Some stories were so gripping that they had me thinking for days afterwards....

It took me more than a year to finish this (granted I moved cities and changed jobs in that year), so make of that what you will. Reading about countries I don't know is very important to me. This collection just didn't quite GRAB me. It was fine... it just wasn't great.

wow.

so those five stars above are not because this is a powerful book that blah blah blah.

it is only because throughout the book, which features stories of characters from Tehran (all of which you later find out are composites) really struck a chord with me. what i loved was that the whole book had an undeniable and constant undertone of the author's own irrational love for the city, and something that kept pulling her, whether it was just the stories or the compelling realities that make Tehran a City of Lies. and this really resonated me. i stayed away from my own hometown - which obviously has many many of its secrets hidden deep below; in fact, you could write a similar book centering around Gulshan Avenue - for almost a year, and no matter how much it frustrates me when i am there, there is still some sense of a perverse attraction to the city. it is a fatalistic love that refuses to die, no matter how many contradictions there are between the realities of societal perceptions and the seedy underbelly below it all. and that is what I felt the author felt throughout the book - the stories seem to be a way for her to reconcile the misery and wanton behavior around her with her deep love for the city. and that is why I gave it five stars.

I have to admit that before reading this book, my only familiarity with Iran came from reading the fantastic [b:The Complete Persepolis|991197|The Complete Persepolis (Persepolis, #1-4)|Marjane Satrapi|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327876995s/991197.jpg|13344769] graphic novel. While Persepolis gives you a great sense of a family in turmoil as the Islamic Revolution changes the Iran that they know, Ramita Navai gives a complete street level view of Iranian life after the Revolution. Navai splits the book into eight chapters on ordinary Iranians: an exile who had left when the Revolution began and came back as an anti-regime assassin, a young girl who is forced to divorce her husband and face the fallout that comes from that, the son of dissidents who were killed by a regime judge who now wants to beg for forgiveness, a surprisingly sympathetic meth dealer, a porn star who began as a prostitute, an Islamic militia member who struggles to reconcile his sexuality with his fundamentalist beliefs, an old-school gangster who has the cutest old person love story ever and an aristocrat alienated by the now fundamentalist country she loves.

Navai spent years in Iran as a journalist and uses the stories she heard from people in south Tehran and her own experiences to give an absolutely fascinating view of the web of lies and intrigue that perfectly ordinary Iranians go through every day. It really demolishes the idea that all Iranians are a bunch of crazy, evil Islamic fundamentalists. Yet Navai clearly shows that the oppressive regime in Iran can make life there utterly terrifying if you don't conform. It's both uplifting and scary depending on which side of Iran Navai is revealing and it's just so very human which I loved. One of the best things about this book, for me as a history geek, is that Navai provides summaries for her sources for each chapter and a glossary so you can learn more if you want. The stories certainly made me want to learn more about Iran's history. At its heart, City of Lies is a study of people and it shows the author's love of her home country without being afraid to show its scars and grime. It's an absolutely stunning book that I would not hesitate to recommend to anyone.