Carefully researched and vividly written... This account of political violence underscores the fraught, intricate relations between Iran and the West. A lively account of an extraordinary trial ... an unsettling reminder of the dangers of excessive zeal
The New York Times
Insightful and detailed… [A] captivating narrative.
Frontline, PBS.org
As the world contemplates the pressing predicament of Iran, Roya Hakakian offers one possible solution through a riveting tale that is most timely and profoundly urgent. This superb true story is much more than an international In Cold Blood— it is a stunning parable of the central struggle of our times between totalitarianism and the rule of law.
R. James Woolsey, CIA Director
CIA Director 1992-1994
A 2011 NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW NOTABLE BOOK
A NEWSWEEK 2011 NOT-TO-BE- MISSED BOOK
A 2011 KIRKUS REVIEWS BEST NONFICTION
A 2011 TEN GREAT READS BY NORTH SHORE NEWS
A VANITY FAIR OCT. 2011 HOT TYPE SELECTION
[Roya Hakakian] Just writes beautifully
Emily Bazelon
Slate.com
Hakakian’s meticulously documented account of the Mykonos incident is a powerful rejoinder, as well as a lesson in ruthlessness and conscience . . . Hakakian’s narrative shines.
Jewish Ideas Daily
[A] political thriller… thoroughly researched, dramatically told account…Reader’s will find everything they could ask for… -and more…discussed in riveting detail… [a] fine book.
Washington Independent Book Review
[An] admirable… look at the September 17, 1992, terror killing of four Kurdish exiles who were holding a meeting in a small restaurant in Berlin… [Hakakian] does a worthy job of presenting the facts through the eyes of the men who survived the shooting and the German authorities who prosecuted the case… the focus on Middle East politics should give this broad appeal.
Publishers Weekly
Roya Hakakian brilliantly documents . . . Tehran’s 1992 attack on the Mykonos restaurant in Berlin.
Wall Street Journal.com
[An] Unmissable Book...
Even as they continue to breach every known international law, all the while protesting at interventions in their 'internal affairs,' the theocrats in Tehran stand convicted of mounting murderous interventions in the affairs of others. Roya Hakakian's beautiful book mercilessly exposes just one of these crimes, and stands as tribute to the courageous dissidents and lawyers who managed one of that rarest of human achievements; an authentic victory for truth and justice.
Christopher Hitchens
Roya Hakakian. . . has written a book that is at once an investigation of a crime, a police and legal procedural and a poetic appreciation of how those murders changed the lives of those who survived, investigated and mourned
Scott Simon
NPR Weekend Edition
[As] If Scheherazade Had Reported on a Murder Case ... a riveting international thriller
Foreign Policy Blogs Network
[Assassins of the Turquoise Palace] is a painstaking and riveting account—a true story that reads like an international thriller.
Newsweek
The Daily Beast
Masterfully documented”
National Post
Gripping…
New Haven Register
This is a brilliant, riveting book, with all the elements of a great thriller—a horrific crime, sociopathic villains, international intrigue, personal betrayals, a noble prosecutor and an honorable judge. And it is all too real: with remarkably comprehensive reporting and brisk, smart writing, Roya Hakakian has told a great story but, more important, she has made plain the lethal immorality at the heart of Iran's regime
Joe Klein, political columnist
Time Magazine
Roya Hakakian is something rare: a poet turned investigative reporter. The outcome of this unusual fusion is a work of journalistic revelation, written so fluidly and gorgeously, it is a masterpiece.
Lesley Stahl
60 Minutes
[A] Groundbreaking Book
Jerusalem Post
Hakakian is also a poet, and her style has an intensity of purpose. The details she marshals and the overlapping points of view she records invite the reader to bear witness to the events described … more tangled than a fictional thriller perhaps, but no less gripping.
World Affairs Journal
“[A] riveting account of a multiple murder and trial that led to a paradigm shift in Europe’s relations with post-revolutionary Iran…. Hakakian… deploys all of her talents as a former producer at 60 Minutes and a poet in her native Farsi to tell the human and political story behind the news… A nonfiction political thriller of the highest order.”
Kirkus Reviews
(starred review)
Hakakian successfully blends an adult’s ripened awareness with a child’s naïve optimism to make this journey well worth taking.
Entertainment Weekly
Roya Hakakian’s Journey from the Land of No manages to convey the best of memoir and the best of history. She poignantly describes the repression under the shah—the euphoria when Reza Shah Pahlavi was overthrown in 1979, and the slow and horrifying realization that his replacement was worse than the shah ever was.
The Jerusalem Report
Hakakian is an irrepressible, at times hilarious, character in her own book, so much so that the reader is buffered from the tale's dark undercurrents of sorrow and betrayal. . . . Her remarkable memoir will surely prove to be one of the most vivid testimonies of the time, not merely because of the writer’s perspective as a non-Muslim Iranian, but because of her qualities as a narrator.
St. Petersburg Times
Roya Hakakian’s molten yet tender memoir of growing up Jewish in the years of revolution, Journey from the Land of No, is one of the jewels of the exile literary renaissance.
Atlantic Monthly
WINNER OF THE 2004 ELLE READERS’ PRIZE FOR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR IN NOTIFICATION
An adolescent memoir of remarkable vividness and narrative grace, Hakakian’s account of her life as a Jewish girl in revolutionary Iran sounds uncanny echoes from today’s headlines in the Middle East—and the prose is gorgeous to boot.
Letty Cottin Pogrebin
Author of Three Daughters
Roya Hakakian has written a stunning and courageous memoir . . . With a lyrical intensity matched by her sharp command of detail, she gives us an indelible portrait of a time and place rich in personality, humor, and tragedy, while offering at the same time a meditation on the unquenchable human desire for dignity and freedom.
Elizabeth Frank
Author of Louise Bogan: A Portrait
An amazing, moving debut. Hakakian’s words of lost innocence and experience sing out from the pages. A heady mixture of Islamic fundamentalism, revolutionary politics, and the pains of growing up in Tehran—perfectly and lyrically expressed.
Ahmed Rashid,
Author of Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia
[A] spectacular debut memoir . . . Only a major writing talent like Hakakian can use the pointed words of the mature mind to give the perspective of the child. . . . She tackles ideologies of assimilation and oppression with poetic aplomb and precision. . . . Hakakian’s tale of passage into womanhood lacks nothing.
Boston Globe
Hakakian is an irrepressible, at times hilarious, character in her own book, so much so that the reader is buffered from the tale's dark undercurrents of sorrow and betrayal. . . . Her remarkable memoir will surely prove to be one of the most vivid testimonies of the time, not merely because of the writer’s perspective as a non-Muslim Iranian, but because of her qualities as a narrator.
St. Petersburg Times
Journey from the Land of No is an immensely moving, extraordinarily eloquent, and passionate memoir. Its author begins what one may prophesy as a major literary career.
Harold Bloom
Political upheavals like the fall of the Shah of Iran and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism may be analyzed endlessly by scholars, but eyewitness accounts like Hakakian’s help us understand what it was like to experience such a revolution firsthand. . . . Her story, reminiscent of Jews in Nazi Germany, is haunting.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Hakakian presents a lyrically poignant account of her coming-of-age years in revolution-beset Iran… Reflecting on growing up both Jewish and female in an increasingly restrictive environment, she is able to offer a unique perspective on the search for spiritual sustenance in a rapidly constricting society. It is both a joy and a privilege to bear witness to one young girl's remarkable emotional and artistic metamorphosis within a stunningly repressive culture.
Booklist
Hakakian, irrepressible, brave, and strong-willed, watches in dismay as the country she loves disappears, to be replaced by one that views what Roya most values—an insatiable intellect—with profound contempt. Like Anne Frank, she is a perceptive, idealistic, terribly sympathetic chronicler of the gathering repression.
Baltimore Sun
Journey from the Land of No offers a rare glimpse into a particular moment in history. The book’s poetic language is wonderful; Hakakian’s recollections evoke the full complexity of growing up amid the chaos that surrounded her.
Globe and Mail
A simply perfect book … written with a deft sense of irony and an eye for the absurd in remarkable prose.
Atlantic Monthly
In language of breathtaking poetic beauty, Roya Hakakian tells the enthralling story of a unique and tragic time in the history of the family and the ancient country she loves. We visit a place and people we have until now only seen from a distorted distance, and we come to understand them through the eyes of a gifted young girl living through her own intellectual awakening. To read this bittersweet elegy to Iran is to witness the emergence of a major new talent.
Sherwin B. Nuland
Author of How We Die and Lost in America
Hakakian’s intimate anthropology opens a window on one life during turbulent times in the Middle East. . . . This book does us the service of removing some of the region’s mythical stereotypes . . . and illuminating a real contemporary culture we would do well to know better.
Seattle Times
[Hakakian is] a lyrical storyteller . . . Her moving narrative swings from funny to sad, capturing idyllic scenes of her parents, aunts, and uncles picnicking and interacting with Muslim friends.
Washington Post
Hakakian debuts with an effulgent memoir of her girlhood in the shadow of the Iranian revolution . . . A moving recollection of lost innocence with vivid political reportage . . . A somber reminder from an accomplished writer of the unexpected consequences and costs of the revolution.
Kirkus Reviews
This fascinating, intimate book written in Hakakian’s elegant words will move readers with an interest in this time and place. It is also an essential read for the younger generation of Iranian Jews who want to know what really happened from someone who lived it.
The Jerusalem Post
The fact that Roya escapes the veil—and decades later produces a book like this one—is the greatest triumph of all. Her tale is a metaphor for dreams, for hope, even beauty.
The Advocate
Roya Hakakian’s book A Beginner’s Guide to America [is] a Tocquevillian gem of sociological and psychological analysis that explains, to a mainly American readership, just how strange this country can be to a newcomer, even — or especially — in what seem like the most banal aspects of life.
Bret Stephens
The New York Times
Roya Hakakian brings a fresh, provocative and poignant voice to the immigrant experience in America. Part memoir, part reportage and part work of imagination…her guide is both the story of her own life and an attempt at universalizing the experience of coming to America… Her lyrical and authentic voice veers from tongue-in-cheek to bitter, sad to furious, stirring to brokenhearted as she moves from discussions of human rights to civic responsibility, lessons on shopping to discussions about relationships, including a section on the ‘vices and virtues of American lovers.’
Rahel Musleah
Hadassah Magazine
As witty as it is insightful, Roya Hakakian's A Beginner's Guide to America should be required reading for new and old Americans alike. She looks at our familiar culture with a clear eye, alive to our foibles, but inspiringly alive, too, to the ideals and values that have drawn so many to these shores -- a vital reminder, in these uncertain times.
Claire Messud,
Author of Kant's Little Prussian Head and Other Reasons Why I Write
Hakakian’s book is a stirring, insightful, funny and uplifting book. Her real predecessor is Alexis de Tocqueville. A Beginner's Guide to America is a worthy successor to his classic work. Hakakian captures the balance of love for America's ideals, and honest perception of its imperfect achievement of them, that together with the resolve always to do better than we are doing now, is the heart of any honorable American patriotism. Count me among those thrilled to hear the vital message of this intelligent and graceful book.
Anthony Kronman
Author of The Assault on American Excellence
Pleasingly intimate . . . An enlightening reminder about human rights and civic responsibility, all too relevant in a troubled time.
Kirkus Reviews
Although narrated as advice for incoming immigrants, this personal, yet practical account is intended to challenge misconceptions and biases that native-born U.S. citizens have toward documented and undocumented immigrants. It is highly recommended for all.
Library Journal
[Roya Hakakian] tells her story with the soul of a poet.
Jewish Book Council
Lyrical and perceptive, A Beginner’s Guide to America is an immigrant’s love letter to the nation that took her in. And it is a timely reminder of what millions of human beings endure when they uproot their lives to become Americans by choice.
Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe
A Beginner’s Guide to America shines many lights on this country’s idiosyncrasies . . . but Hakakian strikes a critical balance between admiration and criticism, achieving a love letter to America that nevertheless isn’t blind to the country’s imperfections.
Tabby Refael
Jewish Journal
[Hakakian is] the most eloquent interpreter of ‘the immigrant’ writing today.
Lesley Stahl
Correspondent for CBS News’ 60 Minutes
Through the use of the second person and a ‘guidebook’ structure, Hakakian’s writing possesses a lyrical quality as she describes quotidian details of life, from arriving in the U.S. on to shopping, then sex and romance.
The National Book Review
This touching account by an Iranian-born poet details her adopted home’s quirks: money that all looks the same, well-stocked markets where the fruit has no smell.
New York Times Book Review
This touching account by an Iranian-born poet details her adopted home’s quirks: money that all looks the same, well-stocked markets where the fruit has no smell.
New York Times Book Review
A Beginner’s Guide to America is a striking and beautiful work: both a genuinely practical primer for newcomers to America, and a deeply personal account of Arrival—an event that underlies nearly every American life. Roya Hakakian provides a timely, entertaining, historically rich reminder of the hope and opportunity this country has offered to so many, for so long, and the rewards it has reaped in return.
Jennifer Egan
Author of Manhattan Beach
Hakakian’s book is a stirring, insightful, funny and uplifting book. Her real predecessor is Alexis de Tocqueville. A Beginner's Guide to America is a worthy successor to his classic work. Hakakian captures the balance of love for America's ideals, and honest perception of its imperfect achievement of them, that together with the resolve always to do better than we are doing now, is the heart of any honorable American patriotism. Count me among those thrilled to hear the vital message of this intelligent and graceful book.
Anthony Kronman
Author of The Assault on American Excellence
Roya Hakakian is one of the most gifted and evocative writers of our day—her words are magic—and A Beginner’s Guide to America is a tour de force. Brilliant and sweeping, full of crackling insights on every page, this book is delightful, witty, transporting, and deeply inspiring—just what America needs.
Amy Chua
Author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
[Her] observation takes the seemingly banal into the realm of the profound and is characteristic of Hakakian’s honest and beautiful book. . . Hers is a “guide,” yes, but of an amicable kind. She offers counsel to readers, not commandments, and although her book could be seen as a love letter to America, it is one that’s been written by an exacting lover who isn’t blind to this country’s flaws.
Tunku Varadarajan
The Wall Street Journal
Journey From the Land of No
Translation