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Azar Nafisi: "The Republic of Imagination"
October 28, 2014 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm | Peace United Church
$31.50Share
The bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran will discuss and sign copies of her new book, The Republic of Imagination: America in Three Books—a hymn to the power of fiction to change lives.
Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her million-copy bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics to her eager students in Iran. In this exhilarating follow-up, Nafisi has written the book her fans have been waiting for: an impassioned, beguiling, and utterly original tribute to the vital importance of fiction in a democratic society.
Taking her cue from a challenge thrown to her in Seattle, where a skeptical reader told her that Americans don’t care about books the way they did back in Iran, she energetically responds to those who say fiction has nothing to teach us. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite American novels—The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Babbitt, and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, among others—she invites us to join her as citizens of her “Republic of Imagination,” a country where the villains are conformity and orthodoxy and the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream.
“Nafisi makes a passionate argument for returning to key American novels in order to foster creativity and engagement.” —Kirkus Reviews
This offsite ticketed event will take place at Peace United Church. Purchase tickets below or in-person at Bookshop Santa Cruz.
“We are all citizens of Azar Nafisi’s Republic of Imagination. Without imagination there are no dreams, without dreams there is no art, and without art there is nothing. Her words are essential.” —Marjane Satrapi
TICKETS: $31.50, includes two tickets to the event and one copy of The Republic of Imagination. This event will take place at Peace United Church. Open seating.
Event presented by Bookshop Santa Cruz, in partnership with the Institute for Humanities Research.