Praise
Praise for Children of Paradise:
“Revealing [and] often shocking… An insightful chronicle of bloody repression and brave defiance.” – Kirkus Reviews
"Anyone who wants to understand the forces shaping post-revolutionary Iran will be rewarded by this intimate and intellectually thrilling portrait. It’s a towering accomplishment."
– Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower and Thirteen Days in September
"Transcending the political clichés that are often offered as new insights on Iran, this wonderful and timely book provides a glimpse into what Secor calls the "soul of the matter." For once the focus is not on the rulers but on those who, with anguish and determination, tried to bring about political change -- even as they themselves were transformed -- and their desire, above all, to restore and preserve their country's sense of dignity, and their own."
--Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Republic of Imagination
"Anyone who ever thought of Iran as a monolith must read Children of Paradise, which takes the reader far behind its fearsome caricature. The children referred to in the title are the brilliant dreamers behind the transformative ideology that produced today’s Iran. This is a meticulously reported intellectual history, but much more. Secor doesn’t flinch from depicting the cruelty of the revolutionary republic, but throughout, it is the passion and promise of the people that shines through."
–Barbara Demick, author of the National Book Award finalist Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea