Then They Came for Me: A Family's Story of Love, Captivity, and Survival
Maziar Bahari (with Aimee Molloy)
True story of a Canadian-Iranian journalist arrested during the 2009 protests. The film "Rosewater" was based on this book.
About this book
Then They Came for Me is the memoir of Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian journalist for Newsweek, written with Aimee Molloy and published by Random House in 2011.
Covering Iran’s disputed June 2009 election, Bahari was arrested and held for 118 days in Evin Prison. His interrogator — whom he nicknamed “Rosewater” for his cologne — is the book’s central figure, as the narrative moves between interrogation scenes, family memory, and the longer history of repression in Iran.
It is at once an account of an arbitrary detention and a tribute to family and endurance, its tone humane and at times wry despite the grimness of its subject.
The book was adapted into the 2014 film Rosewater, written and directed by Jon Stewart, and has been reissued under that title. It is a compelling read on the price of press freedom under repression.
