Tales from the Zirzameen

This book is a non fiction autobiographical account of an American expat's experiences with Iranians and Iran. It is a series of 12 short stories in chronological order. At age eleven he went to boarding school in Rome with the grandson of Sardar Homayoun who was offered the monarchy of Iran by the British rather than Reza Shah but he turned it down because he dwas a freind of the last Qajar King Ahmad Shah and a coup would have invoved killing his compatriots. The author went to Iran for the first time alone and stayed with the family of his best friend for the summer of 1966. He then went on to work in Iran from 1974 to 1979. His experienc in Iran was unlike the typcial foreign workers experience because of the connections his host family had to all the old aristocracy of Iran. He acted in films and socialized with members of the royal family. He became assistant manager of a ship duilding company and helped obtain tariff protection for the nascent Iranian ship building industry during his employ. He worked for Bell helicopter International in their employee and community relations department with responsibilities of a crisis officer, helping American guest workers get out of difficulties and helping to evacuate over 2000 people during the revolution of 1979 during which he was briefly taken hostage. he stayed on for five months after the revolution as he had become completely assimilated into Iranian culture and did not want to leave. He declined an arranged marriage into one of the most respected aristocratic families whose patriarch had been prime minister 13 times under two different dynasties. Finally he had to leave as foreigners were no longer being allowed to work in Iran. In 2008 he returned for the summer to relocate old friends and to observe the pros and cons fo post revolutionary Iran and to enjoy the Iranian people and culture which no regime can change.