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In October 1999 during a trip to Cairo, Cyrus Kadivar, an exiled Iranian living in London, visited the tomb of the last shah and opened a Pandora’s box. Haunted by nostalgia for a bygone era, he recalled a protected and idyllic childhood in the fabled city of Shiraz and his coming of age during the 1979 Iranian revolution. Back in London, he reflected on what had happened to him and his family after their uprooting and decided to conduct his own investigation into why he lost his country. He spent the next ten years seeking out witnesses who would shed light on the last days of Pahlavi rule. Among those he met were a former empress, ex-courtiers, disaffected revolutionaries, and the bereaved relatives of those who perished in the cataclysm.
In Farewell Shiraz, Kadivar tells the story of his family and childhood against the tumultuous backdrop of twentieth-century Iran, from the 1905–1907 Constitutional Revolution to the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, before presenting accounts of his meetings with key witnesses to the Shah’s fall and the rise of Khomeini. Each of the people interviewed provides a richly detailed picture of the momentous events that took place and the human drama behind them.
Combining exquisite vignettes with rare testimonials and first-hand interviews, Farewell Shiraz draws us into a sweeping yet often intimate account of a vanished world and offers a compelling investigation into a political earthquake whose reverberations still live with us today.
"A journey into Iran's recent history and a tale of nostalgia and longing for pre-revolutionary Iran"—Duna El-Zobaidi, The Arab Weekly
"Farewell Shiraz is a sensitive, gentle, nostalgic and very personal account of a world which disappeared in the maelstrom of revolution in 1979, an event which, like the French revolution may yet define the century which followed it. Certainly, we live with the consequences today, whether domestically, in Europe or in the Middle East. It has taught me much about a great nation and a proud civilization and is a perceptive insight into the reality of permanent exile. I recommend it unreservedly."—General Sir Richard Shirreff, author of War With Russia: A Menacing Account
“Both memoir and history, Farewell Shiraz offers not only a glimpse of a lost Iran, but also of the author's heartfelt and lifelong quest to make sense of the revolution that rendered that loss.”—Roham Alvandi, author of Nixon, Kissinger, and the Shah
"This riveting memoir . . . expresses the author's feelings and efforts to overcome the pain of leaving his beloved country. Cyrus Kadivar gives us a fascinating account of the last days of Pahlavi rule in Iran."—Lisa Kaaki, Arab News
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chronology
Part 1: Of Things Past
1. Roses and Nightingales
2. Land of Fars
3. Dream City
4. A New World
5. Love and Politics
6. Homecoming
7. Age of Innocence
8. Spellbound
9. Our House
10. A False Stability
11. Gathering Storm
12. Uneasy Summer
13. Writing on the Wall
14. End of an Era
15. Revolution!
16. Farewell Youth
Part 2: Exile
17. Displaced
18. Café de la Paix
19. After Khomeini
20. Reunion
21. The Shah’s Ghost
Part 3: Witnesses and Survivors
22. Past Errors
23. Whirlwind
24. Night of the Generals
25. Sentimental Journey
26. Father and Son
27. Soraya
28. Persepolis Revisited
29. Ex-Ambassador
30. No Regrets
31. Palace Witnesses
32. Master of Ceremonies
33. Security of the Realm
34. The Diplomat
35. The General’s Widow
36. Khosrowdad
37. Blue Eyes
38. Hoveyda’s End
39. The Last Empress
Epilogue
Sources and Bibliography
Photographic Credits
Index