The Ayatollah Begs to Differ

Captivating ... wise and witty ... essential reading

GQ

Illuminating, critical and affectionate

Economist, Books of the Year

Westerners who tend to seek out only Iranians who talk and think like themselves should use this as a guide

Financial Times

Mr President, if you are serious about negotiating with Iran, you need ... the best book on contemporary Iranian culture and all of its complexities and contradictions. Don't go to Tehran without it

Washington Monthly, ‘What Obama Should Read’

The best book yet written on the contradictions of contemporary Iran ... it captures like no book in recent memory the ethos of the country, in elegant and precise prose

LA Times

It is rare to have this perspective delivered in English with such richness and nuance - it is a perspective quite distinct from the reportorial assembly work of Western reporters or the pained laments of Iranian exiles . . . one hopes that American policymakers will take the time to absorb this book

Steve Coll, author of Ghost Wars

Majd's cosmopolitan perspective permeates his book . . . an impressionistic collection of reporting, memoir, travelogue and commentary

Washington Post