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Iranian Novelist and Doctor Taghi Modarressi.

Novelist Taghi Modarressi. His new novel, The Pilgrim's Rules of Etiquette, is set in Iran after the Islamic revolution. It revolves around an aging academic, well acquainted with the ways and mores of the West, and his family and friends as they deal with the fear and poverty during the Iran-Iraq War. But when his prize student is killed at the front, the academic, who until now has closeted himself away with his philosophical pursuits, must acknowledge the meaninglessness of his efforts when compared to the chaos of contemporary Iran. Modarressi, a native of Iran who has written two earlier novels in Persian, is a psychiatrist who heads the Infant Study program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

10:44

Other segments from the episode on August 30, 1989

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, August 30, 1989: Interview with Gregory Hines; Review of Benjamin Britten's albums "Albert Herring" and "Billy Budd"; Interview with Taghi Modarressi; Commentary on…

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