Includes bibliographical references (pages [221]-223).

In October 2016, Azar Nafisi sat down to write a letter to her father, who had been dead for twelve years. That month was the feverish conclusion to a singularly vitriolic presidential campaign; just weeks later, Donald Trump would be elected president of the United States. The years since have been besieged by crises--from the COVID-19 pandemic to a long-overdue reckoning on race in America to the rise of authoritarianism across the globe. Throughout this time, Nafisi continued to write to her father. Ahmad Nafisi, once the mayor of Tehran, survived political imprisonment under the shah. He was also a great lover of books. When Azar was a child, he had taught her how literature can rescue us in times of trauma. Now, suddenly, she was faced with a tremendous test of its power. Azar Nafisi, the memoirist and professor who "reminds us why we read in the first place" (Newsday), makes an irresistible case for reading dangerous books. In an era when America has never been so divided and when onetime adversaries have become actual enemies, fiction, with its tendency toward empathy, understanding, and nuance, offers a path forward toward genuine engagement. To keep our democracy, Nafisi argues, the role of literature is vital. In the great writers of our time--from Toni Morrison to David Grossman to Ta-Nehisi Coates--she finds a tonic for a political environment with "too much ideology and not enough discourse." Drawing on her experiences as a woman and voracious reader living in the Islamic Republic of Iran, her life as an immigrant in the United States, and her role teaching literature in both countries, this galvanizing book probes the most important questions of art, power, and political freedom.--Provided by publisher.

SACFinal081324