Azar Nafisi: The Magic of Fiction

On the transformative power of literature and the meaning of "upsilamba".

Welcome to “Words of Wisdom”, a series that zooms in on a passage of writing — an essay, a chapter, a speech — from a great thinker on a specific idea.

Today, Azar Nafisi: one of those writers whose pen can switch with ease from sharp and incisive to elegant and heartfelt. Not only does she write compellingly on living a life of literature — in a manner that convinces the mind and moves the soul — she has lived out her principles with admirable courage, never allowing philistine censors or theocratic bullies to stifle her belief in the magic of books.

Here, I take a close look at her memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran.