In the first half of this book Naraghi, a prominent Iranian sociologist, engagingly recounts his long conversations with the Shah in the weeks before the revolution. Here is the Shah at bay, a man overtaken by events and unbelievably naive about the causes of the popular agitation against him. Naraghi provides an unparalleled picture of the revolutionary events as seen through the eyes of those at the very centre of power.; In the second half of the book the author recalls his 33-month experience in prison - the first testimony to come from a survivor of the Islamic Republic's jails. In a rich, intensely human portrait of his fellow prisoners and his jailers, Naraghi powerfully reconstructs his prison world as a microcosm of the political earthquake that engulfed Iran.