BELIEVERS: LOVE AND DEATH IN TEHRAN
BY JUSTIN CHAPMAN
The Pacific Council recently hosted a webcast discussion with Ambassadors Marc Grossman and John Limbert about their riveting new thriller on the United States and Iran, Believers: Love and Death in Tehran. The discussion was moderated by Dilpreet Sidhu, Director of International Relations, Policy, and Protocol in the Office of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
The historical fiction book is about a Foreign Service Officer named “Nilufar Hartman who, pregnant and betrayed, fled Iran. She barely got out alive, carrying her deepest secrets of love and tragedy. Nilufar had arrived in Tehran in November 1979 to take a job as a junior American diplomat at the U.S. Embassy. She had instead spent nine years as an American spy, reporting from deep inside the new Islamic Republic as it collapsed into extremism, civil strife, and war. After her return to America, she chose a quiet university life and swore she would never again do Washington's bidding. Her tranquility is upended by a plea from Alan Porter, the man who had sent her to Tehran in 1979. Porter tells her about a plot by colluding American and Iranian extremists to provoke a war between the two countries. He says she is the only person who can stop it. Nilufar is reluctant to go back to Iran, vividly recalling the agony of her years under cover, when she posed as a believer, the devout and revolutionary "Massoumeh." She can never forget the horrific end to her mission when her lover and the father of her unborn child were murdered. A commitment to serve the United States, which never died inside her, propels her back into the maelstrom. Nilufar adopts another covert identity and returns to Iran to end the parallel conspiracies intent on sparking a conflict. While she is working in Tehran, Porter must stop the Americans ready to promote their private agendas through mass murder. Nilufar must evade Iran's vicious secret police, deliver a message from America, convince a patriotic but suspicious group of Iranians to act, and once more manage a narrow escape from both Iran and her own memories.”
Here are takeaways from the discussion:
Grossman said the idea for the book came about when he thought, “What if there had been one more Foreign Service Officer in Tehran on the fourth of November and didn’t become a hostage? What might have become of this officer? What if we put the officer into the various historic events that then occurred over the years between the United States and Iran? I realized I couldn’t write it by myself, because I didn’t know enough about Iran. So I called John Limbert and he said he’d join me on this effort to create a story out of this.”
“My first reaction was: ‘Marc, where have you been all these years? This is a story that’s waiting to be written,’” Limbert said.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BOOK HERE.
If you are a Pacific Council member and would like to watch the full conversation, reach out to us at engage@pacificcouncil.org.
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The views and opinions expressed here are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Pacific Council.
