Iranian opposition leader MirHosein Mousavi says Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s non-fiction book, News of a Kidnapping, is an accurate description of his own situation under house arrest.
After Mousavi told his daughters during a brief and heavily guarded visit that people who want to know about his life under house arrest should read Marquez’s News of a Kidnapping, the translated version has sold out in Iranian bookstores.
Mousavi and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, were put under house arrest after Mousavi and his fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi rallied their supporters to demonstrate in solidarity with the Arab uprisings in the region. Since last February, the two leaders have been under house arrest together with their wives and cut off from the outside world, except for a handful of brief visits with their children held under heavy security.
News of a Kidnapping, the book mentioned by Mousavi, describes the abduction of high-profile Colombians as ordered by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar in the early 1990s.
The Aftab News website reported that the book is at the top of the bestseller chart, and the Shragh daily reported an unprecedented demand for the book in all Tehran bookstores.
Sections of the book have also been posted on a Facebook page called “News of a Kidnapping, the status of a president in captivity.”
