A Time To Betray: Reza Kahlili

A humbling book told in a very wistful voice. This was reminiscent of Khaled Hosseini's books with the sickness in which they view violence in their country, but cannot speak up for fear of being killed themselves. I hated how helpless he felt and how he had agreed to be a spy for the United States, yet they used his information to their own benefit and didn't seem to help the people of Iran at all. I had a feeling when the book began that both of his childhood friends would end up dead, but I could never have imagined the deaths like they happened. I am still Appalled by the entire episode at the prison, His best friend's sister Parvaneh being paraded in front of him and then executed, the torture the two brothers endured, Roya's suicide, the stoning, the other's stories. How can a society heal from a regime that allows this? This story was haunting, He risked everything, it put a crack into his family life and I feel like we as American's did nothing for him or his country. I believe in staying out of others countries because we make mistakes- Hussein, Pinochet etc. but other countries really view us as peacekeepers and protectors and we are ruining that imagine. This book really causes one to think about human relations and obligations