But it is as the tortured nation at the heart of international conflict that Iran really fascinates us. Nobel Peace prize-winner Shirin Ebadi’s memoirs skilfully weave her personal history with the cataclysmic events that have shaped her country. Since the world today is obsessed with understanding Islamic societies, this book won’t go unnoticed. Ebadi’s account is more political than the bestselling Reading Lolita in Tehran. But unlike its writer Azar Nafisi who left Iran, Ebadi has braved unemployment and jail to stay on and argue forcefully against immigration.