Did you like the book “All of Iran” by Nikita Smagin? Here are six tips from the author on what else to read about the country’s history and modern life

Revaz Otorguri, “A Game of Poker with the Ayatollah. Notes of the Consul in Iran”

“A Game with the Ayatollah” is the memoir of a Soviet diplomat, Revaz Otorguri, who lived and worked in the 1980s. Unfortunately, the book went almost unnoticed at that time, even though it is, in my opinion, the best thing written in Russian about post-Soviet Iran. Oturguri not only describes his work as a diplomat in Isfahan in detail, but also writes excellently about the reality of Iran in those years. The book is very lively, and has a lot of humour, so it is particularly disappointing that so little attention has been paid to it.