Pebbles in the Rice

Book excerpt: Set during the turbulent time that resulted in the Iranian revolution, this memoir chronicles my life as the 6-foot tall, blue-eyed American bride of an infamous Iranian student activist. From braving a 14-year-old in a brand new military uniform pointing his recently issued AK 47 at my pregnant belly, to accidentally being appointed the "official" US delegate to the international conference of non-aligned countries, Pebbles in the Rice: My Life in Iran reveals, reports and remembers the sights, smells and nuances of Iran's people and culture during the turbulent time immediately prior to, and after, the Iranian Revolution of 1979. Pebbles in the Rice: My Life in Iran is the must-have, background color commentary companion that puts the current political situation in Iran in an understandable, personalized and compelling context. It answers the rhetorical question: Shouldn't we get to know a people before we bomb them? It is a first-person chronicle of the political and historical events at the center of the birth of modern Islamic fundamentalism that is as relevant today as it was thirty years ago. From my first arrival in Tehran in 1978, when I was introduced to the power of Khomeini by a relative who would later join with other students and seize the U. S. Embassy, to braving the home invasion of the local militia who arrested my husband, my life in Iran was far from the mundane existence of an expat housewife. Returning to the U. S. in 1982 and narrowly escaping the capture, imprisonment and execution suffered by our friends and relations, Pebbles in the Rice: My Life in Iran chronicles the end of my marriage to my Iranian husband and his untimely death.