Marina Nemat, author of "Prisoner of Tehran"
Marina Nemat is joining us on Monday to wrap up our online conversation about her bestselling memoir, Prisoner of Tehran.
Born in Tehran in 1965, Nemat came to Canada in 1991 with her second husband, Andre, and their elder son. While she was working in a Swiss Chalet restaurant, she wrote a draft of the memoir that would become, many years later, the bestselling Prisoner of Tehran. Since then she has written a second book, After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed, and travelled the world testifying about the evils of political oppression and speaking on behalf of other victims of state persecution.
So far, in our wide-ranging political and personal discussion, we have heard from John Mundy, former Canadian ambassador to Iran, and Diane Turbide, the Penguin editor who bought Nemat's manuscript and helped her shape it for publication, as well as readers from around the world who were moved by this story of a teenage girl who was imprisoned, tortured, threatened with execution and forced to marry one of her interrogators.
One book club member even compared Prisoner of Tehran with The Diary of Anne Frank. And on Thursday Nemat's husband Andre weighed in with an eloquent post about how he felt when the woman he loves was finally released from the notorious Evin Prison after more than two years of captivity.
Now Nemat herself will take your questions about the book – which has been sold to more than 20 countries – her life as a survivor and a bestselling author, and how her horrific experiences have made her into a human rights activist. She joins us on Monday at noon ET.
Sandra Martin