Debut Novel Shows Strife in Tehran 40 Years Ago Still Exists Today

June 19, 2011 - PRLog -- RALEIGH, NC - Douglas Roberts in his debut novel, The Man Who Fooled SAVAK, weaves an engaging tale of love, romance and suspense around true events that are as relevant today as they were 40 years ago in Tehran.

The Man Who Fooled SAVAK inspired by true events in the early 1970s, captures what it is like to live in a dictatorship with secret police monitoring your every move – an atmosphere of fear that still pervades today in many countries in the Middle East.

“The book is as relevant today with the current events in the Middle East as if it were written in the 1970s,” said Anthony S. Policastro, publisher of Outer Banks Publishing Group.

“It is rare that a book comes along and reminds us of the some of the basic freedoms and human rights we take for granted living in a Democracy,” Mr. Policastro added.

The story is about a G.I. stationed in Tehran during the Vietnam War, who falls in love with an Iranian girl and who later launches an elaborate plan to get her and her mother out of the country.  They hope to reunite with their father and husband who escaped death from the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, ten years earlier.

What is amazing is that Douglas Roberts recalled many of the events in vivid detail with the help of a few of his friends, who were also stationed in Tehran at the time of his tour in the 1970s. And recent events in Iran have kindled his memories of his time in Tehran and his passion to write, The Man Who Fooled SAVAK.

“In June 2009, events in Iran would have me thinking about my time there once again. After the fraudulent Iranian ‘elections’ the protest movement was a catalyzing force for me. I could see parallels between what was happening and the anti-Shah sentiment I had witnessed firsthand when I was in Iran. I began to think that perhaps I should begin writing about Iran in earnest,” he wrote.

“Is it a memoir? No, I have created some of the events - most notably, to say some things about human rights. But there are many core elements of the story that I have pulled directly from my life. I actually was in love with a woman named Fari. I experienced firsthand life in the Shah’s Iran, including SAVAK. I actually did work in the all the settings I describe in the book…” he went on.

The Man Who Fooled SAVAK is based on true events.

The Man Who Fooled SAVAK is available as an ebook on Amazon Kindle (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00562OAT4) and in various ereader formats from Smashwords.com (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/64420)

See the interview with Doug Roberts also here on PRlog.

# # #

Outer Banks Publishing is one of the first publishing house of its kind to use the latest digital printing technologies, social networking, virtual marketing, and the Internet to publish, promote, and sell your book.