Leila's Secret

Kooshyar Karimi

Feb 2015 · Sold by Penguin Group Australia

About this ebook

Spellbinding and heartbreaking, the true story told by Kooshyar Karimi in Leila's Secret shows us everyday life for women in a country where it can be a crime to fall in love.

Born in a slum to a Muslim father and a Jewish mother, Kooshyar Karimi has transformed himself into a successful doctor, an award-winning writer, and an adoring father. His could be a comfortable life but his conscience won't permit it: he is incapable of turning away the unmarried women who beg him to save their lives by ending the pregnancies that, if discovered, would see them stoned to death.

One of those women is 22-year-old Leila. Beautiful, intelligent, passionate, she yearns to go to university but her strictly traditional family forbids it. Returning home from the library one day – among the few trips she's allowed out of the house – she meets a handsome shopkeeper, and her fate is sealed. Kooshyar has rescued countless women, but Leila seeks his help for a different reason, one that will haunt him for years afterwards and inspire an impossible quest from faraway Australia.

For all its tragedy, this unforgettable book is paradoxically uplifting, told from the heart of Kooshyar's immense sympathy, in the hope that each of us – and the stories we tell – can make a difference.


'[A] remarkable book . . . Karimi earns our trust through his experiences and his sympathy with the plight of the marginalised.' Owen Richardson, Saturday Age

'A profoundly moving story, beautifully told with extraordinary insight, and filling us with awe at the strength of the author's moral courage.' Robin de Crespigny, author of The People Smuggler

'A riveting account of one girl's innocent spirit defying the tyranny of Iran's crushing regime. It is a masterpiece of moral impossibilities and climactic suspense.' Bob Brown

'An absolutely stunning book. Leila's story is deeply affecting and Kooshyar Karimi is a consummate storyteller.' Shirley Walker, Author of The Ghost at the Wedding

'Leila's Secret brims with compassion and yearning and eloquently shares the story of a regime suffocating its people and losing all that was great about it. To read this book is to see inside a culture and understand the desperation of its people.' The Hoopla

'Compelling and powerful.' Sunday Age

'Inspiring . . . often harrowing . . . Offers insight into how and why one man is willing to put the welfare of others before his own safety.' Townsville Bulletin

Ratings and reviews

The story would be lovely if there was not too much generalisation. I read the story and see Iran as a place full of all desperate poor women who live in misery & maximum can be a teacher! Then track the time, he is talking of the time, I was a teenager/young woman! I am from a traditional religious family but my life wasn't anything like that, neither any of my close friends. Here I am a doctor who migrated to Australia not because she is a refugee, because she is following her big dream to be beyond a simple doctor! There were many hating repetition! I understand your pain but I personally didn't like that much hating words, generalisation of cases of misery you saw! They do exist but not the way you described and generalised! The years, you are referring to, I was a medical student and 40% of students in our class were women from different socioeconomical class! I disagree with Islamic rules particularly when comes to these issues but some cases you referred that she will be stoned, was not true. Stonning is only punishment of adultery if involved a married woman. If woman is not married, other cruel punishment would be considered eg by leash but not stonning. I had more to say but let's leave it here. Your work to rescue those women was admirable.

I loved this book. The two stories are interwoven extremely well and it was very enlightening to learn of the customs of that country. I would love to know the fate of both mother and child.

This had me immediately captivated. I am always in such awe of the strength that some people have when faced with such terrible situations. I still can't believe this is all happening in some parts of the world.

About the author

Kooshyar Karimi was born in Tehran and now lives in Sydney. He is the author of the bestselling Leila's Secret, Journey of a Thousand Storms, and several books on Iranian, Chinese and Assyrian myths and history, one of which was banned from publication by the Iranian government. His memoir I Confess: Revelations in Exile was published in Australia in 2012. He is also an award-winning translator of Gore Vidal, Kahlil Gibran and Adrian Berry, among others.