This has to be the most poorly written and cartoonish bit of anti-Middle East anti-Muslim propaganda that I’ve ever come across. And I read quite a bit! The author portrays all of the Iranians in the stereotypical way that Americans like to portray them: woman-hating, violent terrorists just waiting to destroy the good old American way of life. The author discusses her marriage to Dr Mahmoody and how, on a trip to Iran to visit his family, he suddenly undergoes a radical personality change, abuses his wife and daughter, and tells them that they’re staying in Iran with him. There is absolutely no objectiveness in the book at all. Betty Mahmoody was obviously involved with a man who wasn’t ideal husband material, but that’s not because he’s Iranian or a Muslim, although she wants you to think that. One wonders, if she found everything about Islam and Iran so offensive and barbaric in the first place, then why did she have anything to do with Moody at all? Much less marry him and have a child with him. My sympathies lie with the husband, being married to a woman who despises his family, his ethnicity, his faith and apparently everything about him that isn’t ’’American’’. This book is shameful and has done so much to hurt the image of Muslims and Middle Easterners in general. I’m a convert to Islam and this book is the poster child of the bigoted hatred that poisons people’s hearts and minds. If the author had kept her story within the limits of being realistic she would have possibly had a good novel. She could have admitted that she married a poor choice for a husband instead of turning it into a diatribe against people who practise Islam. And she apparently never made even the slightest attempt to understand Islam. For example, women keep covered out of modesty and not because they are thought of as being evil! In fact christianity is the one that says that women are bad and are responsible for ’’original sin’’. There isn’t even a concept of original sin in Islam. Anyhow, I would never recommend this book to anyone unless they want either a good laugh or if they want to understand how offensive bigotry can be.