Eamonn Gearon
Return to Tehran
The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay: An American Family in Iran
By Hooman Majd
Allen Lane/The Penguin Press 254pp £20 order from our bookshop
The Ministry of Guidance Invites You to Not Stay is an entertaining and insightful account of a year in Iran. It is written by an Iranian-born American who decides it is time for his American wife and their infant son to experience his homeland; the country they find is both alien and familiar. Think A Year in Provence with pollution and religious police.
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'"Dutch Light" roots its subject in his local environment, explaining, for example, how an abundance of sand for making glass led naturally to a thriving business in optical instruments in Holland.'
Patricia Fara on the life & work of Christiaan Huygens.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/through-the-magnifying-glass
Sign up to our e-newsletter!
Get highlights from the new issue and selected archive articles, as well as exclusive competitions and subscription offers delivered straight to your inbox.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/freenewsletter
'We may not be able to shield ourselves from irrational passions such as hatred, anger, envy, mockery and pride, or from the buffetings of circumstance, but we can rise above them by obtaining insight into their nature and their causes.'
https://literaryreview.co.uk/the-poetry-of-reason