Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran showed how essential literature is to life in a repressive culture. Does fiction play a similar role in a free society? Arguing passionately in The Republic of Imagination that it does, Nafisi, a past visiting fellow at Hopkins' SAIS and the author of Things I’ve Been Silent About, combines memoir with close readings of works by Twain, McCullers, and Sinclair Lewis to demonstrate fiction’s power to keep minds open and resistant to conformity. Join us for the paperback release of this tribute to great books.

At Busboys and Poets, 2021 14th St., NW, Washington, DC. Click here for more info.