When journalist, playwright and filmmaker 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 that he would spend the next 118 days in a six-by-twelve feet prison in Tehran's notorious Evin prison. 

Now, in a riveting, heart-wrenching memoir, Then They Came for Me, Bahari provides an in-depth account of the days leading up to the fiercely contested election and the clashes between Iranian citizens and government police that followed. He also describes Iran's tumultuous recent history-from the overthrow of the long-ruling Shah to the Khomeini era, which severed relations with the West, to the current regime under Supreme Leader Ali Khameini. Bahari also brings readers up to the present describing the recent turmoil in the Middle East and the possibility of a democratic, independent government in Iran. In conversation with editor and author Jon Meacham.

Jon Meacham is executive editor and executive vice president at Random House.  A former editor of Newsweek and a Pulitzer Prize winning bestselling author (American Lion, a biography of Andrew Jackson) he is also editor-at-large of WNET Public Media, the New York public television station.

"Then They Came for Me is the story of those who fight to inform and enlighten their society. Fortunately, Iran is not only a country of Ahmadinejads and mullahs, the country is also blessed with plenty of Maziar Baharis."
— Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and author of Iran Awakening

"A beautifully written account of life in Iran, filled with insights not only into the power struggles and political machinations but into the personal, emotional lives of the people living in that complicated country. Maziar Bahari is a brave man and a wonderful storyteller."
— Fareed Zakaria, author of The Post-American World

Then They Came for Me will be available for sale and signing. It is also available at AsiaStore.org

AsiaSociety.org exclusive interview with Maziar Bahari
Read an excerpt from the book

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