Rosewater - Previously Published as 'Then They Came For Me’

By: Maziar Bahari, Aimee Molloy

Narrated by: Stephen Hoye

Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's Summary

When Maziar Bahari left London in June 2009 to cover Iran's presidential election, he assured his pregnant fiancée, Paola, that he'd be back in just a few days, a week at most. Little did he know, as he kissed her good-bye, that he would spend the next three months in Iran’s most notorious prison, enduring brutal interrogation sessions at the hands of a man he knew only by his smell: Rosewater.

For the Bahari family, wars, coups, and revolutions are not distant concepts but intimate realities they have suffered for generations: Maziar's father was imprisoned by the shah in the 1950s, and his sister by Ayatollah Khomeini in the 1980s. Alone in his cell at Evin Prison, fearing the worst, Maziar draws strength from his memories of the courage of his father and sister in the face of torture, and hears their voices speaking to him across the years. He dreams of being with Paola in London, and imagines all that she and his rambunctious, resilient 84-year-old mother must be doing to campaign for his release. During the worst of his encounters with Rosewater, he silently repeats the names of his loved ones, calling on their strength and love to protect him and praying he will be released in time for the birth of his first child.

A riveting, heart-wrenching memoir, Then They Came for Me offers insight into the past 50 years of regime change in Iran, as well as the future of a country where the democratic impulses of the youth continually clash with a government that becomes more totalitarian with each passing day. An intimate and fascinating account of contemporary Iran, it is also the moving and wonderfully written story of one family's extraordinary courage in the face of repression.

©2011 Maziar Bahari (P)2011 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"This book is haunting and unforgettable." (David Ignatius, author of Body of Lies)

Powerful Indictment of a Corrupt Theocracy

The people who were tortured under the Shah's regime become the torturers in this tale about a journalist who is arrested as a spy by a government that cheated at the ballot box. Those who don't play by civilized rules are given their legitimacy through a spiritual supreme leader, Ali Khamenei and they use this religiosity to justify lies and the brutalizing of innocent Iranians.

A few of the idealistic revolutionarys of 1979 now realize that they never sufficiently worked out what type of government would follow and this one sounds worse than the one they overthrew.

Maziar Bahari stands up to the threats to his family inside and outside Iran and to his person either by kidnapping or assassination by daring to tell a story about a ruthless regime. It is remarkable that he argues for a peaceful overthrow of a government that murders and uses rape as a tool to control a population that was angry that their votes were ignored. I hope he is right.

Oh .. and Rosewater is an asshole.

Book that would've shined but for the narration

I had encountered the same narrator before, on Emperor of All Maladies, and barely made it through it because of the narration (something about the intonation), so I knew what I was getting into. I would not have spent another credit on a book by the same narrator. But I had been counting the days until the publication of this particular story, and decided to take a chance. The narration was as flat as on my previous purchase, but the story was there to pull me through. I was most of all impressed by the author's imagination and sense of humor--I'd never expected to be howling w/ laughter listening to what was the retelling of a horrific ordeal, but there I was, rolling on the floor at times. This is a story well worth telling, and but for the narration, one of the best.

narration badly over dramatized

How could the performance have been better?

I enjoyed the book but almost stop listening due to the annoyingly over dramatized reading.... like fingernails on a chalkboard.

Gripping story but bogs down a bit in politics

The story of his imprisonment is gripping but I had trouble keeping my attention focused when he goes into the details of Iranian politics, both current and past. You have to get quite a ways into the book before you get to the heart of the story--the description of his time in prison. I realize the political information is necessary to provide context, but I find political details very boring, and I can't keep straight who's who. There are so many political players and I don't know the Iranian language, so I have trouble understanding their names or remembering who is who. The narrator is not as horrible as some reviewers stated but not great, either. I would say he is "tolerable" but not pleasant to listen to. Since I don't know Iranian, I can't say whether he pronounces the names correctly (another reviewer says he pronounces Iranian wrong) but I was shocked when he mispronounced the brand name Adidas. It took me a minute to figure out what he had said. Also, he consistently mispronounces authoritarian. Instead, he says "authotarian".

Important Insights

The imprisonment of innocent people in Iran holds a certain fascination to me. I have enjoyed other accounts of this dreadful practice, and this book stands out as being an exceptional account. I appreciate the author's detail and his skill in painting an accurate picture of what this experience was for him. I also appreciate his love for Iran and his sense of hope for change. I appreciate his courage as a journalist.

I would have expected, however, that the narrator would be better able to pronounce Iranian words. I know enough Farsi to know that Stephen Hoyle massacred the script. That part was most disappointing.

Good Story

Didn't like the narrator. He read without much emotion. I think it could have been much better.

Overwrought narration, but fascinating story

First of all, even though this is a dramatic and interesting story at its core (so far - it's getting hard for me to finish it), I think it's important to remember that the author is probably more representative of the 'average' Iranian/Persian than Rosewater and his other oppressors are; at least, that's my experience with all the Iranians I've met.

In terms of the aesthetic merit, 'Rosewater' is a slightly over-written narrative to begin with, with a few too many adjectives and descriptions that make it seem a little amateurish in English (as evidenced by the original title). But the narrator goes WAY overboard in his reading - much too melodramatic in expression and intonation and emphasis on every detail, mundane or no, which adds an odd and grating sense of farce that further undermines the story.

Too bad on both counts... I haven't seen Jon Stewart's movie of this yet, but am hoping he didn't take the same approach. The facts should be allowed to speak for themselves.

Loved the story. Narrator voice not a match

The story was compelling and educational. I would recommend the book. The person reading the story was a mismatch for the plot. Distracting, really. The story and wanting to know the end made me stick with it.

Rosewater

An amazing book I think everyone should read in an effort not only to understand the bravery of this amazing man but the thinking of those who do not want Iran to change. Growing up in a country that (until recently at least) is considered a democracy I couldn't understand why anyone would choose to live without freedom yet in many countries they do. I think this book helped me to better understand the thinking of different cultures.

Amazing story

I did not come in with expectations but this was an amazing book. The story is one that we should all know and it teaches us about current events in a way that can not be forgotten.