They Said They Wanted Revolution

A Memoir of My Parents

By: Neda Toloui-Semnani

Narrated by: Neda Toloui-Semnani

Length: 8 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

From a daughter of Iranian revolutionaries, activists, immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers comes a gripping and emotional memoir of family and the tumultuous history of two nations.

In 1979, Neda Toloui-Semnani’s parents left the United States for Iran to join the revolution. But the promise of those early heady days in Tehran was warped by the rise of the Islamic Republic. With the new regime came international isolation, cultural devastation, and profound personal loss for Neda. Her father was arrested and her mother was forced to make a desperate escape, pregnant and with Neda in tow.

Conflicted about her parents’ choices for years, Neda realized that to move forward, she had to face the past head-on. Through extensive reporting, journals, and detailed interviews, Neda untangles decades of history in a search for answers.

Both an epic family drama and a timely true-life political thriller, They Said They Wanted Revolution illuminates the costs of righteous activism across generations.

©2022 Neda Toloui-Semnani. (P)2021 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“The book is both richly reflective, informative, and tender in its characterizations…a generous and heartfelt search for personal and familial identity.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[Neda] Toloui-Semnani movingly reflects on how disconnected she felt from her Iranian roots while growing up in Washington, D.C., and weaves in diary excerpts and correspondence from her first trip back to Iran, in 2003. The result is an intimate and vital study of the Iranian diaspora.”—Publishers Weekly

“Illuminating, poignant. An inspiring read.”—Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran

thank you for pouring out your soul and your story

dear Neda, thank you for your incredible bravery. audiobooks from Iranian writers are rare. to have them narrated by the author is a gem. I love the way you say khale, ame, etc.
Iranian stories and books resonate with my heart in a way I can't describe. I think you did an incredible job with this story given how complex and incredibly emotional it was. my take away was: don't mess with dictators, don't get involved with politics, and always speak your truth.
thank you so much for sharing your honest story. I fully appreciate how difficult it was in the context of our codependent and secretive culture.

Brilliant work!

Having lived through those years both at Berkeley and Iran, I found this book truly amazing for its accuracy, delicate and personal presentation and triumph despite so many tragedies.
Congratulations Neda and thank you!

Beautifully personal

It’s beautifully narrated but 2-3 chapters too long. I didn’t care for the diary chapters at the end and would have preferred them to be interwoven with the story. And frankly, most of them to have been left on the editing floor. Until the last couple of chapters it was beautifully crafted, with a lot of space for the nuance this story needs. It was always very personal, while it was also clear that the writer understood the wider (geo)political context. Very impressive.

I learned so much. Great pacing, felt like I time-traveled

This kept me in a kind of dreamlike state that I found so soothing despite some hard realities. Maybe it’s the authors voice. My audible acct is a graveyard of books stopped at ch 2. This book I wanted to finish.