Short Synopsis
Rich, absorbing, and exotic, City of Lies travels up and down Vali Asr Street, Tehran's pulsing thoroughfare, from the lavish shopping malls of Tajrish through the smog that lingers over the alleyways and bazaars of the city's southern districts.

Full Synopsis
Ramita Navai gives voice to ordinary Iranians forced to live extraordinary lives: the porn star, the aging socialite, the assassin and enemy of the state who ends up working for the Republic, the dutiful housewife who files for divorce, and the old-time thug running a gambling den.

In today's Tehran, intrigues abound and survival depends on an intricate network of falsehoods: mullahs visit prostitutes, local mosques train barely pubescent boys in crowd-control tactics, and cosmetic surgeons promise to restore girls' virginity. Navai paints an intimate portrait of those discreet recesses in a city where the difference between modesty and profanity, loyalty and betrayal, honor and disgrace is often no more than the believability of a lie.

"City of Lies is an extraordinary insight into a country barely known-and often feared-by the West." ---Vogue

"[A] collection of beautifully written profiles." ---Publishers Weekly

"Navai describes the heartbreak and struggles of her subjects with vivid, lively prose, brought to life here with a graceful performance from Sylvia Lisle." ---Library Journal Starred Audio Review

"Sylvia Lisle narrates insightful glimpses into the often opaque nation of Iran and it citizens." ---AudioFile

Library Journal Audio Review