Demonising past sins of Iran will not justify its invasion.Just look at the history of Britian,USA and Israel.They are far worse.

I will say for starters that I liked your writing style and how you got me interested and engrossed. I feel like I should read this book now.

I would also say that I have no idea what the first person who commented is talking about. I don't see anything that says someone should invade Iran because of that country's terrible past and equally repulsive present. I also have no idea what the second commenter is referring to. I don't think one needs to discuss every world atrocity to discuss but one. It seems very defensive of an oppressive government and needing to attack others as a deflection.

I loved your last line so much! I think you took from the book that the terribleness that eventually led to the Iranian Revolution was simply replaced by another so much like the first; that countless other innocent children are being taken from their worlds and indoctrinated into a dogmatic cult of a "one size fits all this is who we are and you must fall in line" thinking.

Anyway, that's what I got and I think I will order the book now.

...And a book that highlights the distinction between mental illness and moral depravity; something the West has a need to correlate and decipher.

...I must say, a beautifully written and constructed review, which has achieved in me a “salivating” longing to read the book, and an alertness to think a little deeper when imbibing in the next "chai-tea".

The author ends with "Some say the terror persists" - indeed it does.

The terror of creating orphans and brainwashing them into amoral child soldiers has in more modern form existed among:

- killer children of Khymer Rouge (Cambodia, 1970s),

- AK-47 toting 12 year olds in Central Africa for two decades to this day, and

- more recently anti-Gaddafi 12 year olds in Libya, where schools closed while shooting was much more fun anyway.

Pete

A beautifully written review that manages to successfully blend the difficult task of objective critique with a very personal response. There are few more complex histories than that of Iran and anything that contributes to our understanding of this place is surely a good thing. Finding a route to access the complex psychology of the Iranian people could well begin with looking at what happened to a generation of children. I look forward to reading the book, and more reviews by this reviewer.

[Deleted. Abusive of author.]