Новая книга Роберта Темплера раскрывает причины падения шаха Ирана и истоки исламской революции

Non Fiction The Shah's Party Robert Templer. Hurst Publishers. $39.99. Subscribe now for unlimited access. or signup to continue reading A former Central European University professor and a frequent visitor to Iran, Robert Templer examines Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's decadent 1971 celebration of 2500 years of the Persian monarchy. He details how the Persepolis gathering exposed the oil-rich Pahlavi regime's detachment amid rising inequality and opposition from exiled mullah Ruhollah Khomeini. Templer explains the context of the Shah's political miscalculations and the cultural nationalism preceding Ayatollah Khomeini's 1979 revolution. This analysis of Iran's modern history of autocracy and the rise of political Islam offers a timely understanding of the nation's defiance, which has reverberated worldwide since US President Donald Trump launched his bid to rein in its nuclear ambitions. The Smallest Restaurant in Paris Rachel Khoo. Ultimo Press. $36.99. British cook, author and broadcaster Rachel Khoo's memoir details her trajectory from South London to Le Cordon Bleu and television success, including appearances on The Great Australian Bake Off. Moving to France without financial backing, Khoo operated a one-table eatery inside her tiny flat using a two-ring stove, a project that launched her global career. Unlike her previous instruction-focused cookbooks, this volume combines narrative chapters on hard work and self-transformation with culinary recipes from the corresponding period in her adventures. This engaging book should please foodies seeking biographical insights into Khoo's career as well as those drawn to the romance of Paris. Blackbirding Ryan Butta. Affirm Press. $36.99. The author of The Ballad of Abdul Wade and The Bravest Scout at Gallipoli has crafted another narrative non-fiction, this time exposing the forcible transportation of more than 60,000 Pacific Islanders to labour on Queensland sugar plantations between 1860 and 1906. Known for uncovering hidden histories, Butta aims to challenge Australia's colonial euphemisms and expose what he describes as the deliberate "engineered forgetting" that has kept the story of this slave trade out of the national memory. Using archival research and historical documentation, his narrative focuses on figures like Robert Towns and James Murray, highlighting systemic coercion, unpaid labour and thousands of deaths. Drives A Bit Funny Stephen Corby. HarperCollins. $34.99. Australian motoring writer Stephen Corby's memoir draws on his years of knowledgeable but cheeky automotive commentary. A journalist for more than 30 years and a former editor of Top Gear Australia and Wheels, Corby moved into writing about brum-brums after crashing a borrowed motorcycle early in his career. His book documents his life behind the wheel through the various vehicles he has driven, from learning to drive in his grandfather's trusty Land Rover to family life in a Holden Astra. Highlighting the joys and perils of driving in Australia and personal anecdotes from his home life and on the road, this is a funny, relatable read for car lovers. Fiction Little Isaac Footy Fever 1 Isaac Heeney with Nicole Hayes, illustrated by Dan McGuiness. Allen & Unwin. $16.99. There's something about a book written by your sporting hero and Isaac Heeney's new Footy Fever series is sure to inspire the next generation to be active and enjoy sport. One of the most decorated players in the AFL, Heeney wants his books to "capture the fun, energy and friendships that come with playing sport as a kid". The first two books follow Little Isaac as he searches for something to use up the "fizzy feelings" in his legs. When he finds a faded old Australian rules football, Isaac and brother Beau practise kicking and try to find friends to join them before testing themselves in a real game. Orlando Virginia Woolf, adapted by Susanne Kuhlendahl. HELVETIQ. $49.99. In this graphic novel adaptation of Virginia Woolf's classic of feminist and queer literature, German illustrator Susanne Kuhlendahl adapts the story of an English nobleman who transitions into a woman in Constantinople while travelling through time over 300 years from the Elizabethan court into the 1920s. Woolf originally wrote the satirical biography for her friend and lover, aristocrat Vita Sackville-West. Kuhlendahl aims to condense key passages of the 1928 novel into interconnected visual vignettes, featuring Woolf herself as a narrating character. Combining literary history, poetry and critiques of gender, the illustrated hardback edition includes a foreword by scholar Anna Snaith. Shakespeare's Kitchen Lore Segal. The New Press. $34.99. Best known for her autobiographical fiction exploring the refugee and immigrant experience, Austrian-American author Lore Segal died in 2024 at the age of 96. This is a smart new edition of her 2007 satirical comedy of manners threading together 13 stories, seven originally published in The New Yorker. The focus is academic Ilka Weisz, who accepts a teaching position at a Connecticut think tank and reluctantly leaves her New York circle of friends. As she plots Ilka's struggle to make connections at a series of memorable dinner parties, picnics and Sunday brunches, Segal - a refugee who fled Nazi-occupied Vienna - evokes the subtle drama and humour of an outsider's loneliness. Quite the Pair Tobias Madden. Penguin. $34.99. Originally from Ballarat, musical theatre performer-turned-writer Tobias Madden now lives in New York City. This millennial coming-of-age rom-com is his debut novel for adults following young adult fictions, 2021's Anything But Fine and 2022's Take a Bow, Noah Mitchell. When thirty-something best friends Austin and Sydney move back in together in New York after their respective long-term relationships collapse, they pledge to overcome toxic habits. But new romantic prospects and co-dependency test their resolve. Madden's narrative, set against the backdrop of Broadway and the tech industry and told through dual perspectives, explores how platonic adult friendships evolve through life transitions. Love books? Us too! For more reads and recommendations, browse our Arts & Entertainment page and bookmark the page so you can find our latest book reviews and articles with ease.