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Betty Mahmoody

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

by Betty Mahmoody (Author), William Hoffer (Author)

4.8 1,602 ratings

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Not Without My Daughter is the true story of a courageous mother and her breathtaking odyssey, now a major motion picture starring Academy Award-winner Sally Field!

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...

Not Without My Daughter is a Literary Guild Alternate Selection.

Print length

420 pages
Language

English
Publisher

St. Martin's Paperbacks
Publication date

February 15, 1991
Dimensions

4.2 x 1.15 x 6.65 inches
ISBN-10

0312925883
ISBN-13

978-0312925888
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Spellbinding!” ―Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Readers will cheer...good adventure with a happy ending.” ―Washington Post Book World

“Intense...compelling reading.” ―Detroit Free Press

About the Author

Betty Mahmoody is an author and public speaker, best known for her book Not Without My Daughter, the basis of the film by the same name.

William Hoffer is the co-author of Midnight Express and Saved: The Story of the Andrea Doria. He lives in Virginia.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Paperbacks; Media tie-in edition (February 15, 1991)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Mass Market Paperback ‏ : ‎ 420 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0312925883
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0312925888
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.7 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 4.2 x 1.15 x 6.65 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #51,551 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18 in Customs & Traditions Social Sciences
- #449 in TV, Movie & Game Tie-In Fiction
- #579 in Women's Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.8 1,602 ratings

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4.8 out of 5

1,602 global ratings

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Leah Halvorson

Very compelling story

Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2024

Verified Purchase

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!

Reviewed in the United States on March 8, 2024

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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.

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2011

Verified Purchase

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.

15 people found this helpful

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PRETZEL

Impressive, scary, thoughtful. Great book!

Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

First of all can we say "She should've followed her first mind!?" And stayed home! But how many of us does that? Second somehow I can't hate Moody, because that's his culture (I being an american woman born and bred ain't feeling it at all! Nor would I have gone there!) But I truly admired Her courage, and her story kept me on the edge until the last page. The way it was written I could actually put myself in her place and felt what she was going through!

2 people found this helpful

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Heather Light

I had to keep reminding myself this was a true story...

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2021

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I was barely alive when this happened, but I am still rather surprised to have only learned of this by accident. This is rule #1 why you don't marry into cultures opposed to your own. I had to keep stopping to question this woman's reasoning for being in the situation in the first place. However the story is incredibly compelling and harrowing, and this mother and daughter lived a non-stop adrenaline filled life from moment to moment for almost 2 years, not knowing how or if it would get better (or worse) from day to day. I like to think I could hold onto hope for as long as she did and in the face of what she was seeing and hearing and experiencing daily, but I don't know.

Amazing story of resilience in the face of danger and the unknown.

8 people found this helpful

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That's Me!

The book is better than the movie, however...

Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

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.

18 people found this helpful

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Linda Millan

Good book

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2023

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Good book

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Melissa

Amazing story

Reviewed in Canada on August 22, 2021

Verified Purchase

Amazing book. Couldn’t put it down. Finished it in 2 days !!

M. Wales

Brilliant book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 4, 2023

Verified Purchase

Read this book years ago , lent it out,never returned, one of the best books I have ever read , was browsing in amazon, saw the book ,couldn't resist to order and read it again . Not sharing this time lol.

One person found this helpful

In_full_bloom 🌷🌼🌺💐🌸🌹

Poignant

Reviewed in France on November 2, 2021

Verified Purchase

En août 1984, Betty Mahmoody, femme au foyer originaire du Michigan, accompagne son mari dans son Iran natal pour des vacances de deux semaines. À son grand désarroi, elle se retrouve avec sa fille de quatre ans, Mahtob, virtuellement prisonnière d’un homme à nouveau consacré à sa foi musulmane chiite, dans un pays où les femmes sont des quasi-esclaves et où les Américains sont méprisés.
Voici l’histoire vraie de cette femme courageuse et de son odyssée à couper le souffle pour regagner sa liberté et celle de sa fille.
J'avais énormément aimé le film, oscarisé, et je suis très heureuse de découvrir désormais le livre, passionnant et poignant. Je recommande x1000.
Le livre est arrivé très abîmé mais Amazon m'a permis de le garder et m'a remboursée. Meilleur Service Client au monde à bien des égards !