In the House of My Bibi: Growing Up in Revolutionary Iran

In 1966, when Kherad was two years old, she was sent to live with her grandmother Bibi in Shiraz, separating her from her mother and seven brothers. Bibi guides her through Islamic culture, Muslim faith and Iranian history with “memories from the old days, tales from ancient legends, or stories from the holy Koran,” and with the model of her own behavior. Life with Bibi is generally idyllic, a time when the author “would wave one of Bibi's head scarves to shoo away the chirping birds who dared come near my ripening grapes.” When Kherad is five, her 10-year-old brother Mohammad enters her life, bringing unorthodox books and questioning—and, ultimately, complicities that lead to Kherad's imprisonment when she is in her mid teens (unfortunately, her dates vary throughout the book, often leading to confusion). Kherad is held for two years, subjected to foul prison conditions and torturous treatment, including “the lashing everyone talks about,” forced blood donations; Mohammad is executed. In mingling this tale of two lives (growing up, serving time), Kherad (who fled Iran for California after she was released from prison) dulls the edge of both. The tribute to the grandmother, who taught her “the meaning of love, respect, emancipation and benevolence,” is rich in lore and ritual, but drags under the weight of reconstructed conversations and the book's see-sawing structure. (Feb.)