Rich, absorbing, and exotic -- City of Lies travels up and down Vali Asr Street, Tehran's pulsing thoroughfare, from the lavish shopping malls of Tajrish through the smog that lingers over the alleyways and bazaars of the city's southern districts. Ramita Navai gives voice to ordinary Iranians forced to live extraordinary lives: the porn star, the aging socialite, the assassin and enemy of the state who ends up working for the Republic, the dutiful housewife who files for divorce, and the old-time thug running a gambling den. In today's Tehran, intrigues abound and survival depends on an intricate network of falsehoods: mullahs visit prostitutes, local mosques train barely pubescent boys in crowd control tactics, and cosmetic surgeons promise to restore girls' virginity. Navai paints an intimate portrait of those discreet recesses in a city where the difference between modesty and profanity, loyalty and betrayal, honor and disgrace is often no more than the believability of a lie. Ramita Navai is a British-Iranian foreign affairs journalist who has reported from over thirty countries including South Sudan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Nigeria, El Salvador, and Zimbabwe. She has made twenty documentaries for Channel 4's series, Unreported World, and she was awarded an EMMY for her undercover report from Syria for PBS's Frontline. She has also worked as a journalist for the United Nations in Pakistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Iran, and was the Tehran correspondent for the Times from 2003 to 2006. “A masterpiece of true tales turned into rich, gripping, vivid narrative...; The amazing aspect of the book is that Navai manages to transform every tale into exquisitely detailed, terrible -; but somehow wonderful -; novellas. ...;There's something cinematic in Navai's style. Any one of these stories could be adapted for the big screen as a feature film...;. This book is a caution, a tragedy, a seduction."-; Liz Smith, The Chicago Tribune /The Boston Herald "This is an important book. A seamless literary tapestry that just happens to be true. Ramita Navai's collection of stories are uniquely Iranian yet they will move, chill and delight even a reader indifferent to Persia." -; Sam Kiley, author of Desperate Glory and Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor "One of the world's most exciting cities, as revealed by one of journalism's most exciting women. Navai slips effortlessly into the boots of earthy, urban writer to tour Tehran's ripped backsides in this intimate, grand guignol debut. She transports us through the Iranian capital's multiple personas with deft and knowing navigation: never short of love for even the lowliest of her fellow Tehranis. An intimate and devoted portrait, lifting a beautiful truth from a city masked in lies." -; Anthony Loyd, author of Another Bloody Love Letter and My War Gone by, I Miss it So “It's a well-paced, entertaining read. But its fascinating mix of characters and its refusal to be distracted by Iran's many external problems are what make City of Lies truly valuable."-; The National Interest “An intriguing collection of cameo portraits to illustrate the difficulties and challenges Tehranis face in their everyday lives...; Navai provides a fascinating insight into the routine hypocrisy and dishonesty that have become the survival mechanism for millions of ordinary city-dwellers."-;Mail on Sunday (UK) “Taken together, the book's eight compulsively readable chapters, each focused on a different Iranian, paint a harrowing portrait of the city today...; Readers are granted a panoramic view of Tehrani society: from the faux-Greek mansions that house the nouveau riche in the city's north, to a midtown bustling with students, merchants and young women with ‘enough make-up to make a drag queen recoil,' to the shacks and poverty of south Tehran." -;Wall Street Journal "City of Lies explores the double lives led by Tehranis as they evade the watchful eye of the regime... a rich portrait of this vibr

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