Hailed as a masterpiece in Britain, this epic novel is at once a great love story, a riveting political thriller, and a profound analysis of modern Iran. It is the spring of 1974, and John Pitt, a young Englishman, sets off for the hippie East, stopping in Iran. There, in the lovely city of Isfahan, he meets the enchanting and spirited Shirin, an Iranian schoolgirl of seventeen. They fall desperately in love, marry in secret, and are forced into...