This is not the first example of a book made out of blogs ... It does, I think, count as the finest so far: an eye-opening collage of extracts from the (roughly) 64,000 Farsi-language bloggers now at work in Iran, threaded by Alavi's illuminating analysis
Boyd Tonkin
Independent
Incredibly heartening
Ian Hislop, BBC R4
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Every now and again a book comes along that first challenges any preconceived notions you may have about a particular subject, and then turns them completely on their head. We Are Iran is just such a book
Metro
This could very well be the nearest thing to a nation writing its own history
Scotsman
The blogs are admirably articulate, brave, heartfelt, funny and sad
New Statesman
You won't get a better glimpse of the obsessions and frustrations that exist behind the imposed cliche of the black chador; ideas and passions that thrive despite the rule of what Alavi calls the "mutant" Islamists
Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
An eye-opening patchwork of Iranian voices ... It would be hard to read We Are Iran without sensing you had glimpsed the affairs of ordinary people living in a cruelly restrictive regime
Rosemary Goring
Herald
An important contribution.
Philippe Sands Nasrin Alavi's We Are Iran is a fascinating portrait of a young generation trying to reconcile its demand for individual rights with the official ideology of political Islam.
Pankaj Mishra
New Statesman
Alavi mines the rich seam of surreptitious scribbling in modern Iran to produce a powerful picture of popular feeling there.
Robbie Hudson
Sunday Times
Alavi's compelling social and political history of her country reveals the paradoxes of the modern Islamic republic.
TLS
In despotic countries, bloggers have become the new enemy and the new martyrs. One of the most startling and informative books recently published is We Are Iran, the translated voices of witty, fierce, optimistic young Iranian web diarists.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
Independent
As Nasrin Alavi demonstrates in her new book We Are Iran, these diary sites cover the gamut: angry, sad, humorous and brave.
Ben Macintyre
The Times
This beautifully organised book has you learning the long history of Iran almost by sleight of hand. Evocative and weirdly gripping, it makes you feel more like an eavesdropper than a reader.
Rachel Cooke
Observer
This captivating study of contemporary Iran is illustrated by a wide range of extracts from the weblogs rapidly being constructed by its citizens. ...Alavi uses the range of tones and feeling that pour through the electronic ether to enliven this excellent "people's history" of the country. Organised around themes such as gender, religion and war, she focuses in particular on the younger "rebellious generation" (70% of the population are under 30). At the same time, the book is historically sharp, highlighting how the US-UK coup that crushed the democratically elected government of the 1950s sowed the seeds of militant Islamic anti-Americanism as well as a wider "nation of steadfast revolutionaries". An engaging and inventive book that deserves a wide audience.
Guardian
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