Named a Must-Read by Flavorwire Could not be more timely . … Indelibly portrays the journalists, dissidents, reformers and student activists who have fought bravely for their ideals in a country where voicing one’s beliefs has often led to imprisonment, torture and death. … Secor’s portraits create an impressionistic montage of Iranian life during the last 37 years, which is hugely valuable in helping us understand Iran’s complex back story. … They provide sharp, pinhole windows into a country that for many years has seemed, in her words, like 'a black box whose contents were all but unknowable.' —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times “A deeply moving, intimate collection of personal stories...[Secor gives], through extensive interviews with Iranians in the country and in exile, a first-rate, highly readable intellectual history …Ms. Secor is at her very best when she relays the bravery and despair of dissidents , in particular the agony of women who have thrown themselves into the fight…Ms. Secor last visited Iran in 2012. We can hope that she isn’t denied a visa in the future for her truth-telling. If she is, Children of Paradise was worth the price.” —Wall Street Journal A stellar example of investigative journalism and narrative nonfiction.” — San Francisco Chronicle “Entrancing ...In [Secor's] hands, clerics, scholars, and others who helped Iran morph into a republic where mosque and state are inseparable are like larger-than-life character from an epic novel...If beginning to know a people, a country, can help further our appreciation of them, [Children of Paradise is] an important building block.” —O, the Oprah Magazine “Mesmerizing…Secor captures the extraordinary intellectual and political ferment of a country where millions of people chafe under authoritarian rule...substantive and deeply affecting ."—Newsday “A vibrant panorama of contemporary Iran that doubles as a thorough intellectual and political history of the country’s past four decades…highly accessible.” —Foreign Affairs “Americans … might take this moment to enjoy Secor’s book to gain a better understanding of Iran’s rich recent history. In it, they will find this lesson: the circle may tighten around intellectual life in Iran, around political progress, and around the complicated hero's who hold down, often unsuccessfully, those barricades—but the ideas that animate these figures and their impulses, the debates behind them, will live on underground, behind closed doors, until it’s time to bloom again. Secor’s story … is a refreshingly Iranian tale—but for us there is this implicit warning: Do not trample this soil and foreclose that next Spring.” —The New Republic "A thrilling introduction to Iranian culture and the daring intellectuals who have crafted ideological challenges to the rulers of the Islamic Republic." —Shelf Awareness “Thoughtful political history [that] comprehensive[ly] engage[s] with the social and intellectual complexities that shaped the creation of this modern-day religious state… In visceral detail, Secor describes the political lurches and turns of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the country’s transformation from autocratic fiefdom to a theocratic “democracy.”… Children of Paradise works particularly well because it reaches beyond the documentation of Iran’s turbulent recent history, and succeeds in personifying it.” —Haaretz "[Children of Paradise ] covers a wide array of people, from political thinkers to reformers to revolutionaries, and provides fascinating glimpses and insights into a number of conflicts within Iran, as well as exploring the ideological debates behind them—ones which may have previously made little sense to many Western observers." —Signature Reads “Secor’s book, which peers inside the 'black box' of a complex theocratic regime over the course of decades, will likely provide grist for arguments on more than one side.” —Flavorwire Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly Library Journal The Looming Tower and Thirteen Days in September "Transcending the political clichés that are often offered as new insights on Iran, this wonderful and timely book provides a glimpse into what Secor calls the 'soul of the matter.' For once the focus is not on the rulers but on those who, with anguish and determination, tried to bring about political change—even as they themselves were transformed—and their desire, above all, to restore and preserve their country's sense of dignity, and their own."Reading Lolita in Tehran and The Republic of Imagination Children of Paradise , which takes the reader far behind its fearsome caricature. The children referred to in the title are the brilliant dreamers behind the transformative ideology that produced today’s Iran. This is a meticulously reported intellectual history, but much more. Secor doesn’t flinch from depicting the cruelty of the revolutionary republic, but throughout, it is the passion and promise of the people that shines through."Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Secor's opposition's-eye journalistic treatment makes for an engaging account of the reform movement in Iran: its ideals, its luminaries, its points of reference.
The New York Times Book Review - Steve Negus
In Children of Paradise, Ms. Secor…indelibly portrays the journalists, dissidents, reformers and student activists who have fought bravely for their ideals in a country where voicing one's beliefs has often led to imprisonment, torture and death…Ms. Secor's portraits create an impressionistic montage of Iranian life during the last 37 years, which is hugely valuable in helping us understand Iran's complex back story…they provide sharp, pinhole windows into a country that for many years has seemed, in her words, like "a black box whose contents were all but unknowable."
The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
12/21/2015
03/15/2016
Recently, the nation of Iran has been involved in so much human struggle that it seems nearly impossible to capture it all in one book. Iranian-American actress Mozhan Marno gives this work the feel of a documentary or a lengthy news report. Somehow, Secor manages to disclose the depth of the fight of Iran’s freethinkers and free-speakers—as well as the consequences of their plight. Marno’s voice deftly carries listeners along the sometimes torturous accounts of Iranian life over the past 37 years with a stoicism befitting a head of state. At times, there are didactic inflections that take the listener out of the story, but these are rare. Overall, this is an excellent listen for those curious about the passion of Iran’s reformers, who continue to speak their truth despite the almost certain dangers. R.A. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
2015-11-01
