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I Confess

Revelations in exile
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( 81 ratings, 13 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
I Confess by Kooshyar Karimi is a gripping memoir recounting the author's dangerous life in Iran as a Jewish doctor. Secretly helping desperate women with illegal procedures, Karimi's courage shines through his personal accounts of survival and resilience amidst persecution and fear, offering an intimate glimpse into a world governed by secrecy and oppression.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$6600

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this captivating memoir if you're interested in gripping true stories of survival and perseverance. The author shares his experiences in a clandestine life under a repressive regime, offering insightful reflections on courage, identity, and redemption. It's a powerful tale for those who appreciate personal narratives with a strong emotional impact.

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You can listen to an interview with Dr Kooshyar Karimi here on Radio National

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This is a memoir by Sydney-based doctor and writer/translator, Kooshyar Karimi, who in 2000 managed to flee, with his family, certain torture and death which stalked him on a daily basis in his native Iran. Karimi's sin was his Jewishness and the fact that he helped desperate girls and women who had been raped, terminate the resulting pregnancies.

Whilst many stories have come out of Iran in the last decade or so, nothing matches the grittiness of this portrayal of life in the crumbling alleyways and damp cellars of an Iranian slum district - the extreme poverty and desperation, the regular betrayals and compromises even within families, in the fight for survival.

The memoir begins at his birth on the back seat of a police car in the sub-zero temperatures of a bleak and icy winter's night. It finishes with a nail-biting telling of his eventual escape across the border into Turkey, only to be pursued by his nightmares, for which he seeks a measure of atonement in the writing of this book.

I Confess is a harrowing account that reveals the resiliency of the human spirit amid unthinkable hardship and adversity.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The book presents a captivating yet unsettling narrative that reads like a tragic fable. It displays Karimi's gift for storytelling, using his writing as a means of atonement, and deftly captures both mundane and extraordinary aspects of his life.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780987178503

Publisher: Wild Dingo Press

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 01 September 2012

Country: Australia

Imprint: Wild Dingo Press

Illustration: Illustrations

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 145.0mm

Height: 230.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 375

About the Author

Kooshyar Karimi was born in December 1968 in the slums of Tehran. At the age of six, Karimi was compelled to work to contribute to his family's survival and was only eleven when the Islamic Revolution upended his world. Amidst the post-revolutionary chaos and the bloodshed of the Iran-Iraq war, Karimi pursued his education through to medical school with a clear determination to avoid war, stay alive, and support his mother whilst pursuing his passion for reading and writing. By the age of 26, he was a published author, award-winning translator, doctor, husband and father. At this time, he began the research for his book, A History of Iranian Jews. This dangerous activity contributed to his being kidnapped by the Islamic Intelligence Service in the winter of 1998, tortured, burnt, and whipped over 65 days. He was then presented with an unimaginable decision...to spy for MOIS against his own people or to be tortured slowly to death. His forced cooperation was a significant factor in the arrest of thirteen Iranian Jews in March 1999, a case that caused an international outcry. To end this nightmare and escape his own imminent execution, Karimi called on a fateful connection from the past to flee his country across the border to Turkey. Months of anxiety and despair followed till he and his family were granted a refugee visa to Australia. He is now an Australian citizen, practising medicine full-time in New South Wales, and writing in his spare time.

Also by Kooshyar Karimi

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  • Leila's Secret
    In fundamentalist Iran, new life sometimes means certain death. When Leila comes to see Doctor Karimi, both are in danger. Born in a slum to a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, Kooshyar Karimi has transformed himself into a successful doctor, an award-winning writer, and an adoring father. His could be a comfortable life, but his conscience won't permit itβ€”he...
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  • Journey of a Thousand Storms
    Kooshyar Karimi had two careers in Iran, one as a doctor and one as an award-winning translator, until he was kidnapped by the Intelligence Service. Behind his professional success, Kooshyar was a rebel on several fronts. Marginalised since boyhood as a Jew in a fundamentalist Islamic state, he was a member of a political group that opposed the government. He'd...
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