Azar Nafisi

The best-selling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran presents an impassioned tribute to the importance of fiction to democracy that blends memoir with close readings of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Babbitt and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. 100,000 first printing.

America in Three Books

The Republic of Imagination

From the author of the bestselling memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran comes a powerful and passionate case for the vital role of fiction today. Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her million-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 to her eager students in Iran. In this exhilarating follow-up, Nafisi has written the book her fans have been waiting for: an impassioned, beguiling and utterly original tribute to the vital importance of fiction in a democratic society. Taking her cue from a challenge thrown to her at a reading, she energetically responds to those who say fiction has nothing to teach us today. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favourite novels, she invites us to join her as citizens of her 'Republic of Imagination', a country where the villains are conformity, and orthodoxy and the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.

Lisa Miller

A meaningful discourse on books, personal experience, and current politics. I very much enjoyed the first two sections of this book. It's inspired me to reread Huckleberry Finn which I read as a child and devote more time to reading the early works of American literature. The second section which was about Babbitt by Lewis Sinclair didn't persuade me to read the book but the commentary on the education policy in America was thought provoking. I'm not American nor do I live there so "common core" isn't something I know a lot about, however the movement in education policy towards "job ready/employable" students upon high school graduation is happening elsewhere including NZ so it was still relevant. The third section On Carson Mccullers and The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is where I struggled to maintain my interest, so by the time I got to the epilogue on Baldwin I don't believe I gave it the attention I should have. Even so I greatly enjoyed the first two thirds of the book..

The Republic of Imagination America in Three Books

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