THE BOOK FAIR

Review: 

Betty Mahmoody recounts her harrowing escape from her abusive husband, Sayyed Bozorg Mahmoody.  The story begins in Detroit, Michigan where the Mahmoody’s resided, and Sayyed,” Moody”, worked as a physician.  After seven years of marriage, Moody planned a trip to Iran to introduce Betty and Mahtob, their five year old daughter, to his family.  Betty reluctantly agreed to the trip, although she bore heavy misgivings, and clung to the understanding, that the family would return home within weeks.  “Not Without My Daughter”, reveals the candid, vivid, details of her year and a half imprisonment in Iran, and of her desperate, dangerous escape.

 

In excellent writing, Mahmoody describes daily life in Iran, life behind the veil, the treatment of women, and detailed depictions of scenes and events.  Betty recounts the first realization of fear, as Moody confiscated her passport, and the long journey of abuse, isolation and devastation.  Betty’s emotional trauma, her unbelievable resolve and endurance as she planned her incredible flight to freedom and the care she sought to avoid discovery, coupled with the details of the difficulties of this narrow escape, not only from Teheran, but from the icy, snow covered mountains, make this story a rollercoaster of excitement, laden in suspense and heroism. 

At the time of publishing her memoir, Betty Mahmoody chose to live with her daughter, in an undisclosed location, within the USA.   Highly recommended.  Five stars.

 

Note:

Co-authored by William Hoffer