What I Loved:

Not Without My Daughter is a memoir written by Betty Mahmoody. This mother’s fierce determination in the face of completely insurmountable odds was such a force in this book. I couldn’t tear myself away from her story.

How I Felt:

I was completely terrified for Betty and her daughter. I had such an absolute enraging anger towards her husband for his deceit. I was appalled every time some new horror would appear in the story. It was nerve-wracking to read, and I can’t imagine living it.

The story starts with Betty Mahmoody, her husband, and their 4 year old daughter take a trip to Iran to visit her husband’s family. This was planned as a 2 week trip, however once there, her husband wants to stay. Betty finds she has no rights int his country and becomes a prisoner, for lack of a better term. She starts to work with people that will help get her out, but she refuses to go without her daughter. This book is the story of her trip there and her fight for her daughter and her freedom.

To Read Or Not To Read:

Not Without My Daughter is a must read memoir! It grips you and doesn’t let go. Knowing that this story was the author’s life experiences made all the pain and fear even more real to me because she lived it.

Where To Find This Book:

What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon is available at these sites.

Amazon | Goodreads

There’s a movie too! You can watch it on Amazon here!

In August 1984, Michigan housewife Betty Mahmoody accompanied her husband to his native Iran for a two-week vacation. To her horror, she found herself and her four-year-old daughter, Mahtob, virtual prisoners of a man rededicated to his Shiite Moslem faith, in a land where women are near-slaves and Americans are despised. Their only hope for escape lay in a dangerous underground that would not take her child…

Now the true story of this courageous woman and her breathtaking odyssey bursts upon the screen in the Pathe Entertainment production starring Academy Award-winner Sally Field!

Not Without My Daughter is a Literary Guild Alternate Selection.

Just the Facts:

Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody
Subtitle: The Harrowing True Story of a Mother’s Courage
Genre: Memoir
Page Count: 420 pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Pub Date: February 15, 1991