Between Two Worlds

Starred review from April 1, 2010
An American of Iranian and Japanese descent, Saberi was Miss North Dakota and a Top Ten finalist in the Miss America Pageant in 1997, grateful for the scholarship that enabled her to become a journalist. She felt a deep connection to Iran when she moved there in 2003, and even though her press credentials were inexplicably rescinded in 2006, she stayed in Tehran to work on a book, unaware that she was under surveillance. Stunned by her arrest in early 2009, she struggled to make sense of the nightmare as intelligence officials denied her legal representation and contact with her family, charged her with espionage, and subjected her to solitary confinement and terrifying interrogations. Desperate to save her life, Saberi finally made a false confession, which ended her isolation and launched a moral and spiritual awakening as she shared cells with women prisoners of incredible courage, conviction, and kindness. She then discovered that, thanks to her parents, her story was headline news worldwide. Saberi tells the chilling story of her 100 harrowing days in Evin Prison with finely etched detail and heroic candor in an unforgettable chronicle of an all-too-common assault against universal human rights, justice, and truth.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)