I found this book an absorbing look at life in present day Iran for a woman who just wants to have the freedom that we in the west have grown up with and take for granted. Layla's mother is determined to pick out a suitable husband for her and Layla is just as determined to resist her mother's efforts. She defies her mother and flouts the ayatollah's rules when she has an illicit affair with her art teacher, Keyvan. With the death of her beloved uncle and the arrest of her cousin visiting from America by the morality police (the komiteh) her world is turned upside down, family secrets are revealed and what of the life she imagined with Keyvan?