The Burnt City: A Novel of Iran on the Eve of Revolution

Tehran, 1978. As Iran slides into revolution, the escalating chaos provides ample opportunity for adventurers: A secret fund that is to be transported to southeastern Iran has excited the larcenous instincts of several disparate parties: the Islamic Warriors of Truth, the amoral son of a missionary, a desperate husband, a group of exiled Kurds, and a determined US agent. Events push the reserved but vulnerable Margaret Lexler into the center of the drama, the US operative and a young Iranian her only shields. They pursue the money from Tehran to Kerman to Bam to the edge of the Kavir-e Lut, one of the most desolate regions on the planet, where they meet in a bloody showdown at the Burnt City, an eerie geological formation resembling a petrified city, rumored to be a hideout for bandits, smugglers, and demons.

Robert Bangor, a veteran of more than 17 years in Iran and an eye-witness to the Revolution, provides his readers with a sumptuous banquet of violence, intrigue, greed, and lust in the streets of Tehran and Kerman, a Sufi shrine, the ruins of Bam, the Kavir-e Lut, and the Burnt City itself.