My Life as a Traitor

Zarah Ghahramani & Robert Hillman

'My Life as a Traitor is a riveting story. It is a celebration of human courage under duress and a savage indictment of the oppressive regime of Iran. It shocks, angers, saddens, and inspires.'

Khaled Hosseini (author of The Kite Runner)

'Beautifully written, it's horrifying, enlightening and, ultimately, uplifting.'

(Sunday Telegraph)

' ... Gharamani's [book] distinguishes itself by its plain, powerful style, its self-searching honesty and her sharp eye for her society.'

Anne Susskind (Weekend Australian)

‘Then the fear grips me again. They have not finished with me, surely? Will they blindfold me again, take me to that hideous man? Is this only the first of many times that I will sit before him, struggling to learn the rules of his ugly games? I know the answers to these questions that have formed in my poor, weary brain: the first of many times, Zarah.’

Zarah Ghahramani was born in Tehran in 1981, two years after Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran to establish the Islamic Republic. Her life changed suddenly in 2001 when, after having taken part in student demonstrations, she was arrested (literally snatched off the street by secret police) and charged with ‘inciting crimes against the people of the Islamic Republic of Iran’.

While imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison she faced brutal interrogation: her head was shaved, and she was beaten. After being released, she was forbidden to return to university, and soon realised that she had no future in her native land. Robert Hillman, an Australian writer, met and befriended Zarah in Iran in 2003, and helped her to escape to Australia, where she now has permanent residency.

My Life As a Traitor is a beautifully written memoir of Zarah’s life in Iran, revealing the human face behind the turmoil of the modern Middle East. Her descriptions of Persian culture, contemporary Iranian society, and radical Islamist politics are eye-opening, as is her account of the growing voice of dissent in Iran. But it is the story of Zarah’s struggle to survive the nightmare world of Iran’s oppressive regime that makes My Life As a Traitor an unforgettable testimony to the strength of the human spirit.

'My Life as a Traitor is an important and revealing book about a culture and a country that figures hugely in modern geopolitics. It is the inner journey of one young woman, of her fear, pride, courage, and ultimate survival in Tehran’s brutal Evin Prison. But it is also a coming-of-age story that haunts and provokes; beautifully written and disturbingly unforgettable. It will stand beside Solzhenitysn and Primo Levi as a book that shows exactly how human beings survive in the face of true evil.'

Janine di Giovanni, author of Madness Visible: A Memoir of War

Zarah Ghahramani

Robert Hillman

Robert Hillman was born in 1948 and grew up in rural Victoria. His first novel, A Life of Days, appeared in 1988, and was followed by The Hour of Disguise (1990), Writing Sparrow Hill (1996), and The Deepest Part of the Lake (2001). His 2004 memoir, The Boy in the Green Suit, won Australia's National Biography Award. In 2007, he co-authored My Life as a Traitor, a young Iranian woman's account of the realities behind the turmoil of the modern Middle East. After many years of teaching in high schools and university, Robert Hillman now works as a full-time writer. He has three children and lives in Warburton, in Victoria's Yarra Valley.

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Format: Pb
Extent: 256pp
Size: 234mm x 153mm
ISBN (13): 9781921215506
RRP: $29.95
Pub date: July 2007

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Rights held:

ANZ

Rights sold:
ANZ (Louis Braille Audio)