When Terence O’Donnell, an American who lived in Iran for fifteen years in the 1960s and 1970s, was asked what he was doing there, he replied, “The conviction of all Iranians, of most of my compatriots, and indeed of the Russians, was that I was engaged in intelligence work. I was, and what is more I filed a daily report. My employer was myself and my reports consisted of eight thousand pages of journal. This book was drawn from that material.”
For ten of those years, O’Donnell lived on a farm near Shiraz, in southern Iran, where he raised mainly pomegranates, but also quinces, grapes, chickens, and bees. He also made many Iranian friends. His memories of that time have yielded a masterpiece of national portraiture, wonderfully alive to the complexities of the Iranian character and culture — courteous, capricious, deeply religious yet also playful, generous, and poetic. A work of shimmering beauty and sensitivity, Garden of the Brave in War will deepen every reader’s understanding of the often elusive country that lies behind the headlines
The Hardcover Commemorative Edition features an introduction by Dick Davis.
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Table of Contents
introduction . . . . 9
preface. . . . 17
prologue . . . 21
the keeper of the garden. . . . 33
Journal I . . . .51
the hunting expedition . . . . 57
Journal II . . . . 91
the visit of the jester. . . . 99
Journal III. . . . 107
the passion play . . . . 113
Journal IV. . . . 131
the winter village. . . . 137
Journal V . . . .151
the pilgrimage . . . . 157
Journal VI . . . .169
the prince . . . .175
Journal VII . . . .215
the trip for wood. . . . 223
epilogue . . . .237
