Time Will Say Nothing

Sorbonne-educated and the author of almost 30 books, Ramin Jahanbegloo, a philosopher of non-violence in the tradition of Tolstoy and Gandhi, was arrested and detained in Iran's notorious Evin Prison in 2006. A petition against his imprisonment was initiated, with Umberto Eco, Jurgen Habermas, and Noam Chomsky among the signatories. International organizations joined in, and media around the world reported his case extensively. Finally, after four months, he was released. In this memoir Jahanbegloo recounts his confinement, his fear for his life, and his concern for the well-being of his family. With cockroaches his only companions, he is sustained by the wisdom of the great philosophers and by his memories of childhood in Tehran and coming-of-age in Paris. Now exiled to Canada, Jahanbegloo wryly observes that he "traded the danger and violence of an Iranian prison for the mediocrity and hypocrisy of a late capitalist society" and finds himself struggling yet again--this time against banality--in his continued quest for freedom. "Riveting and beautifully written...Time Will Say Nothing is an indictment of the practices of a particular regime; but its complaint reaches much farther. It is an indictment of all regimes, East and West." -Fred Dallmay, author of In Search of the Good Life and Being in the World