Things I’ve Been Silent About

Things I’ve Been Silent About is a memoir by Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, chronicling her tumultuous childhood and family dynamics in pre-revolutionary Iran. The narrative centers on her complex relationship with her domineering mother, whose unfulfilled dreams and fabricated stories of grandeur create a web of secrets and emotional turmoil, contrasted with her idealized bond with her charming yet flawed father. Against the backdrop of Iran’s political upheaval leading to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Nafisi explores themes of betrayal, silence, and personal awakening through literature, ultimately confronting the dysfunction that shaped her path to independence.