Prisoner audiobook

When someone comes up to Jason Rezaian, throws their arm around him, and wants to hear all the juicy bits about how he underwent torture at the hands of his Iranian jailers, they are somewhat taken aback when they discover that he wasn't physically assaulted, but underwent trauma at an even deeper level of the soul. To such a person, it is not as vicariously thrilling. But to read this generous and at times humorous memoir is to experience what this man suffered for 18 months, not knowing whether he was going to walk free or undergo worse. And during the early part, suffering the anxiety of not knowing what Yegi, his wife, was facing since she had been arrested at the same time as he. It takes nothing away from the page-turning quality of this book to know that they both survived their ordeals and live in the United States. In fact, whole sections reduced me to tears. The continued efforts on the part of Yegi, his mother and brother Ali, as well as his Washington Post confederates, were instrumental in securing his release, but it is his spirit and his ability to find something to laugh at each and every day that has made his eventual healing possible. As with most books written by reporters, the writing here is clear, sharp and to the point. Last night I had the privilege of seeing him in conversation with W. Kameau Bell, his wife and mother also in the room. His persona is one of gentle humorousness, intelligence, and makes me all the happier that things have turned out as they did for him.

Frustration is writing a review that disappears. Only doing this a second time because the book deserves it. At times I felt like I too was serving time in an Iranian prison. I had to hurry up and finish it so I could get out of my sordid cell. Parts of the book are monotonous; it needed to be this way for me to understand the experience. Jason and his wife Selehi are ambushed and imprisoned over trumped up charges. They are accused of being spies primarily because they started a tongue- in-cheek Kickstarter to bring avocados to Iran. Since The Rezaians spent parts of each year in CA and Iran, Jason was missing avocados. The Iranian captors were sure that this was a code word for some nefarious goings on. It was not. They saw his disorganized email and felt that this was more evidence that they were trying to spy. None of their charges made any sense but they were after one thing only---a confession by Jason that he was a spy. Actually, Jason was a Tehran bureau chief for the Washington Post who was trying to report fairly on Iranian politics and culture. His wife was Iranian and she too was jailed for part of his imprisonment. Although Jason was not physically abused, he was mentally tortured. There was no routine just threats of death, solitary confinement and endless interrogations. He was consistently blindfolded when he left his cell and never knew what was around the next corner.Although Jason had no way to know it, lots of people including Mohammed Ali were lobbying for his release. His mother and the rest of his family were persistent and brave throughout the ordeal. One of his saving graces was that he never lost his sense of humor. One of the guards kept begging him to sing them a song. He made him stand then sang The Star Spangled Banner. Innocent people are being sent to Iranian prisons every day. We need to put a stop to this foolishness but it'll never happen while DT is president. Serving time when you are innocent must be one of the worst ordeals a human can suffer. Jason is currently writing opinion pieces for the Post and contributes to CNN. I'm glad he wrote this book.

A great book and not what I expected. I am embarrassed to share that I did not know much about Jason Rezaian's story other than the fact that he was in an Iranian prison and was associated with the Iran nuclear deal. I assumed that this would be a prison memoir in the category of Unbroken, with the author enduring and overcoming the trauma of abuse in captivity. There is no torture in this book, and that is part of the terrible deception of Rezaian's imprisonment. His captors often emphasized that their treatment of him was "not that bad." They didn't beat or physically abuse him. After spending months in solitary, he was given a roommate, and the prison "allowed" him regular kabob deliveries and conjugal visits with his wife. But none of this erases the fact that he was falsely imprisoned for a year and a half of his life, in a nation where he had a legal visa to do the exact work that he was arrested for, with no due process, was regularly interrogated for the duration of his captivity, and was separated from his wife and family, with lies being spread about him on an international level.... "not that bad." Rezaian maintains a tone of fearless contempt and ridicule for his captors, regularly referring to them as "clowns" and calling his judge "without exaggeration, one of the dumbest people I have ever encountered." This is a reminder that fools can ruin lives just as much as evil geniuses or sadists. It's also a reminder that the bar should never be lowered to "did they get tortured" as a barometer for hardship, in any country. False imprisonment can destroy people, period.

Really interesting look into an American captive in Iran who is of Iranian heritage. What happens when you're illegally detained losing almost two years of your life and how it changes you. The treatment, mind games, politics.....

Pod Save the World was right — Prisoner is far more than a book about imprisonment. This story is about family and love, the dangers and adventures of being a journalist, and the challenges that dual citizens, specifically Iranian Americans, have faced and continue to face. Rezaian writes a beautiful and raw tale.

Jason Rezaian, Washington Post journalist in Iran, was arrested in 2014 without cause and kept in an Iranian prison for 544 days. He tells the story in Prisoner, along with some background on his family and a very sweet story about meeting his wife. The book is not disturbing in the aggressive way one might think when reading about journalists in foreign prisons; he was not physically tortured in the ways you might imagine -or stop yourself from imagining. But as he says, he was tortured in every other way: held alone in solitary confinement and later kept out of the general prison population, separated from his wife and loved ones, separated from all life outside, the constant anxiety of being locked up and not knowing what will happen next. It's disturbing to really stop and think about that, especially when I think how annoying some little inconveniences or separations from my family can be. The book also got me thinking about criminal justice, immigration, refugee resettlement in America...unfortunately you can't read this book and say, 'Geeze Iran, America would NEVER behave like that.' At least we've still got our American hope that we can keep working and fix our injustices.

What a wild ride! I can’t imagine what this must have been like for him. While so many can say that he shouldn’t have been in Iran working as a journalist and brush it off that way, the author had ties to Iran and absolutely deserved to be there. To be imprisoned for the act of journalism is horrible! I’m happy that he was able to survive without much incident and be released. I feel for those left to languish because they aren’t as well connected.

Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison – Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out is an autobiography written by Jason Rezaian. This memoir recounts his eighteen month imprisonment in a powerful memoir that underscores the complicated relationship between the United States and Iran.Jason Rezaian is an Iranian-American journalist who served as Tehran bureau chief for The Washington Post. He was convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial in Iran in 2015 and has written about his experiences in this book.In 2014, Rezaian, a dual citizen of the United States and Iran, was captured with his wife in Tehran and accused of espionage. The agents lacked evidence, so they drew farcical connections everywhere to make the charges stand.His understanding of Iranian culture allowed Rezaian to parry his jail guards with humor and earn privileges such as conjugal visits with his wife. Rezaian faced relentless interrogation that gives insight into Iran's paranoia regarding the United States. His captors attributed sinister intentions to even positive stories he wrote about the country. Little news reached him during his time in captivity, except for when boxer Muhammad Ali publicly denounced Rezaian's imprisonment, which resonated with Iranians, who generally admire Ali.Secret negotiations eventually led to his release, and he returned home a minor celebrity, congratulated by billionaires such as Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos as well as panhandlers, who he believed were brothers of the Nation of Islam and who embraced him and greeted him in Arabic.Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison – Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out is written rather well. Rezaian's conversational prose makes this a fast and intense narrative. The frankness and openness of Rezaian's voice made the memoir extremely personal.All in all, Prisoner: My 544 Days in an Iranian Prison – Solitary Confinement, a Sham Trial, High-Stakes Diplomacy, and the Extraordinary Efforts It Took to Get Me Out is a wonderfully memoir of imprisonment under false charges.

** spoiler alert ** "Officially, Iran's judiciary carried out 977 executions in 2015." Without the persistence of his mother, brother, wife, Washington Post colleagues, friends, and caring citizens, Jason Rezaian could be dead. Every time Rezaian wrote of a rescue intervention by his devoted team, this reader considered the women in Tehran's Evin Prison who are, as Rezaian pointed out, often raped. When given 'privileges' such as coffee, take-out food, phone calls, and conjugal visits, his guards reminded Rezaian that Evin Prison was not as bad as the American torture center of Guantanamo. Yes, the banality of evil and false imprisonment is not unique to Iran. Over and over, Rezaian underscores the ignorance and stupidity of prison staff who carry out the cruel commands of the "Great Judge" while knowing the charges are false. Injustice ordered from above, is always carried out from below by co-dependent colluders who swap integrity for a paycheck. This reader hopes that now-freed journalists Rezaian and Yeganeh will point their pens to rescue the helpless languishing behind.Eleanor Cowan, author of : A History of a Pedophile's Wife: Memoir of a Canadian Teacher and Writer

I started this book with the expectation that it would be about torture and other hardships in an Iranian prison and it was - just not in the way I expected. Although not physically tortured, Jason Rezaian was mentally and emotionally tortured while being held in Evin prison for those 544 days and though there were no physical scars on his body, the scars on his mind and soul were equally as damaging. What surprised me the most though was that I occasionally found myself chuckling at the stupidity of his captors but then simultaneously being terrified that Iran’s government is that corrupt and can get away with throwing people in prison without cause then making up charge after charge against them to see what might stick or until they can break them into a false confession. That there is nothing “legal” or even law related in their court system is the scariest thing of all - they can grab anyone off the street, throw them in prison and keep them there indefinitely solely on the basis of “because I said so”. Jason Rezaian is a remarkable man and his story is equally remarkable.

Great account of trials and tribulations of being a journalist in Iran

I could go on and on about this book, but instead I'll say: Read it at once.

Great book about the author's ordeal and the inner working of the Iranian and American political machine.