The Republic of Imagination

America in Three Books

By: Azar Nafisi, Azar Nafisi - introduction

Narrated by: Mozhan Marnò

A New York Times bestseller

The author of the beloved #1 New York Times bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran returns with the next chapter of her life in books—a passionate and deeply moving hymn to America

Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her multimillion-copy bestseller Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics of English and American literature to her eager students in Iran. In this electrifying follow-up, she argues that fiction is just as threatened—and just as invaluable—in America today.

Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite novels, she describes the unexpected journey that led her to become an American citizen after first dreaming of America as a young girl in Tehran and coming to know the country through its fiction. She urges us to rediscover the America of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and challenges us to be truer to the words and spirit of the Founding Fathers, who understood that their democratic experiment would never thrive or survive unless they could foster a democratic imagination. Nafisi invites committed readers everywhere to join her as citizens of what she calls the Republic of Imagination, a country with no borders and few restrictions, where the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.

Love

This is a beautiful love story to American literature. Read this is you love to read, or if you want to be taught how to love to read.

What a mind, what mirth and what passion

To say that I love this book would be an understatement. Azar Nafisi is a thought provocateur. She asks the reader to join her on a journey to resuscitate literature and to examine what the authors may have understood about life. Few writers have made me as full of joy, as we have tackled some of the darkest challenges of history.