Not Without My Daughter: The Harrowing True Story of a Mother's Courage Mass Market Paperback – February 15, 1991

Well written. Good book. Provided more context and background than the movie.

Incredible book. Breaks your heart as a Mama. Well written and captivating.

Amazing book

This book of true events is a must read! I purchased a brand new copy of this book and it is in great condition and the print is large enough to be seen.

The book is downright fascinating. Betty has no qualms writing how she felt and what she thought, which was often unflattering toward her husband and his relatives. People are up in arms because she seems anti-Islamic/anti-Iranian in her book. Anyone with any sense can read this book and see that she doesn't hate Islam or Iranians; she hates the way women were treated and, subsequently, the way she was treated. She is also less than fond of her husband solely because of his actions. People can debate the truth of this book until they are blue in the face, but it doesn't make the book any less interesting. To get the most out of this book, read it as if you are listening to a friend tell a story about some incident that made them really angry: accept the main points and overlook any minor exaggerations. A great read.That being said, I have to add that I do not understand why Betty would put herself in this position. According to the book, her husband, Moody, was a pretty useless husband and a jerk from the beginning. For instance, while still in the U.S., Moody lost his job and was angry and jealous that Betty went back to work to bring in some much needed income (he believes that women belong in the home). He made her come home on her lunch hour and make him lunch every day. He also pretty much abandoned her while she was in labor and then named the baby without asking Betty. There were many many more red flags, but how many does a person need?Finally, there is a documentary by her husband called Without My Daughter. You can watch it on YouTube. It adds a little depth to the saga.

First off, the shipping and handling and the quality of the book are fine. I bought the cheap mass media version, and the print quality was the only issue. A lot of it has double print issues with words printing a second time about a millimeter beneath the first print. I don't need glasses for reading so I didn't have problems with it. I'm not sure if others will.Now about the story:I don't know if it was Betty Mahmoody or William Hoffer that did most of the layout ideas, but whoever it was, did it a very strange or incorrect way. For example, paragraph breaks were put in when they were not needed. You read, come to a paragraph break, and you continue to read just to see nothing has changed. The following is a made up example of how ridiculous it is:"Bobby saw the ice cream truck and ran to his dad for money.Bobby's dad gave him money for the ice cream truck."You see what I mean? There is no reason for that paragraph break just like there is no reason for a lot of the paragraph breaks in this book.The other thing I found very strange was the story not being told in chronological order. I have read plenty of biographies, auto biographies, memoirs, and true crime books, and none of them jump back and forth between present and past. It happens a lot in this book and it messes with your understanding about how psycho this guy really is. It makes it harder to see how he changed from a loving, romantic Romeo into this twisted freak that clearly has issues. I would have been able to see more clearly how scary and two faced this guy is and how he went from sane Romeo to inbred wacko if the writer(s) had wrote it in order.Other than those two things about the story (and the bad print job) , it was a good book. You get to see how insane Iran is, both the government and the people. You also get to see how amazing a small amount of hidden people are. They have so much love in their hearts for complete strangers; they are willing to risk death for someone they don't know to help that person home.Side note:For everybody that's mad and saying this is a lie, you need to remind yourselves that this happened forty years ago during war between Iran and Iraq. You're not from that country and you're not from that time period and apparently you do not understand how much power a government has control of you during war. Most of you are not from there and the small amount of you that have toured there (for whatever weird reason you would want to) do not know the truth about the people there, especially the people forty years ago. Do you not remember how they were cheering for all the deaths on national news from toddler to grandpa on 9/11? That country does want death to America; there was no exaggerating in that area. Also, yes, inbreeding was and is common there. Sorry you cannot handle the truth and you get offended on behalf of other people.

I watched the movie years ago and loved it. I didn't know that there was a book for it until recently. Love the book! Great read. Betty gives a lot more detail than what the movie provided explaining Mahmoody's family dynamics among other things. Highly recommend.

This book is absolutely fantastic! I'm not even done yet, I got it 2 days ago and I'm already 380 pages in. I almost called in sick to work today to keep reading. It is so well-written and engaging, the story is harrowing. I first learned about the true story by seeing clips of the movie on Tiktok and I'm so glad there was a book too and not just a movie. 10/10 would recommend!