Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison

Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Rezaian recounts his 18-month imprisonment in a powerful memoir that underscores the complicated relationship between the U.S. and Iran. In 2014, Rezaian, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Iran, was captured with his wife in Tehran and accused of espionage. The agents lacked evidence, so they drew farcical connections everywhere, treating, for instance, a joke Kickstarter campaign that he created to fund an avocado farm in Iran as a coded message. His understanding of Iranian culture allowed Rezaian to parry his jail guards with humor and earn privileges such as conjugal visits with his wife. Rezaian faced relentless interrogation that gives insight into Iran’s paranoia regarding the U.S.; his captors attributed sinister intentions to even positive stories he wrote about the country (“by improving this image America would somehow infiltrate the Iranian system... in the process gutting Iran of its revolutionary ideals”). Little news reached him during his time in captivity, except for when boxer Muhammad Ali publicly denounced Rezaian’s imprisonment; Rezaian notes how this action resonated with Iranians, who generally admire Ali. Secret negotiations eventually led to his release, and he returned home a minor celebrity, congratulated by billionaires such as Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos as well as panhandlers, who he believed were brothers of the Nation of Islam and who embraced him and greeted him in Arabic. Rezaian’s conversational prose makes this a fast and intense narrative. [em](Jan.) [/em]