A Refugee’s Story

In Journey of a Thousand Storms, by Dr Kooshyar Karimi, author of Leila’s Secret, tells his gripping personal story of surviving prison in Iran and life as a refugee before finding success in Australia.

(Editors Note, Leila’s Secret was reviewed by Marlene Sanders here)

Kooshyar Karimi had two careers in Iran, one as a doctor and one as an award-winning translator. Until he was kidnapped by the Intelligence Service.

Behind his professional success, Kooshyar was a rebel on several fronts. Marginalised since boyhood as a Jew in a fundamentalist Islamic state, he was a member of a political group that opposed the government.

He’d also been using his medical skills illegally, to save unmarried pregnant women from death by stoning.

Snatched from the street by the secret service, he was jailed and tortured and then forced to spy for the regime, before finally escaping to Turkey. There he faced a whole new struggle to keep his family safe while awaiting refugee status from the UN. He was forbidden to work and at the mercy of corrupt police, con men and red tape. Then life became more dangerous still, when the Intelligence Service tracked him down and used his mother, back in Iran, as blackmail.

Kooshyar’s inspiring story of how he managed to forge a new life in Australia is heightened by his largeness of heart, strength of character, and insight into human behaviour, from the unfathomably evil to the selflessly kind.

With the skill of a natural storyteller, Journey of a Thousand Storms, by Dr Kooshyar Karimi recounts a life of endurance, compassion and gritty determination. It is available from Dymocks.

Join Books at 60 on Facebook, or sign up for our weekly newsletter below for more great reading recommendations!