From Publishers Weekly
"Be like a nail!" Latifi's mother would scold when the author cried. These words are a testament to the grit Latifi displays throughout this wonderful memoir. The author was 10 and her sister 11 in May 1979, when their father, a military officer under the Shah, was executed by Khomeini's soldiers. Only 34, their mother was left to raise four young children (she also had two sons) in a newly fundamentalist society hostile to women. At first, the girls "loved putting on the chadors. It felt like Halloween." But when a villager started bidding on marrying Latifi's then 13-year-old sister, their mother knew they had to leave. Yet visas were routinely denied, passports arbitrarily confiscated. Still, Mrs. Latifi managed to take her daughters to Austria, where they attended a convent school (the boys remained in Tehran). The year in Austria was disastrous; the girls unwittingly spent the family's savings trying to overcome their loneliness. America was the next solution; there, the girls lived with relatives in Virginia and learned to take care of each other. Things turned out all right—the family was finally reunited, the children all chose good careers. Unlike many Iranian memoirs, most of this one takes place outside the country. Still, it's a remarkable, resonating tale. Photos. (Apr.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Similar in tone to Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), this poignant memoir chronicles one family's odyssey through the Iranian Revolution and beyond. The daughter of a colonel in the shah's army and a schoolteacher, Latifi and her siblings lived a comfortable life in Tehran in the 1970s until Khomeini catapulted into power. When her father was arrested and executed like so many of his contemporaries, her family was immediately plunged into confusion and disarray. Sent with her sister to school in Austria, young Latifi did not reunite with the rest of her family until many years later. Finally together again in the U.S., the Latifi clan successfully struggled to rebuild its collective future together. Culminating in a bittersweet return trip to Iran, Latifi's tribute to her family's courage and resilience is a compelling testament to the dauntless nature of the human spirit in the face of all types of repression and adversity. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Booklist
"[A] compelling testament to the dauntless nature of the human spirit."

Library Journal (starred review)
"A hard-to-put-down book."

Publishers Weekly
"Wonderful… a remarkable, resonating tale."

Book Description

In February 1979, when Afschineh Latifi was just ten years old, her father, a colonel under the Shah of Iran, was imprisoned by Khomeini's soldiers. Afschineh and her three siblings were left in the care of their mother, who did everything in her power to free her husband from jail, and who struggled to survive in a newly fundamentalist society that was openly hostile to women.

In the torturous weeks and months that followed, Mrs. Latifi and her husband communicated by writing notes to each other on tiny squares of paper, and bribing the guards to pass them back and forth. "Mommie joon'e azizam ghorbanat," Colonel Latifi wrote in one of them. "My beloved for whom I would give my life. Please take care of the children ... Do not worry about me. I am well."

The situation continued to deteriorate, however, both in and out of prison. Mrs. Latifi was verbally abused whenever she showed her uncovered head. Armed guards took to following her and the children everywhere, even to school. Turbaned men arrived in the middle of the night to search the house.

In late May, Colonel Latifi was executed, shot with little fanfare on a prison rooftop, and the story begins. Fearing for the safety of her daughters, Mrs. Latifi made a heartrending decision: She sent Afschineh and her sister, Afsaneh, abroad, knowing it might be years before she embraced them again -- if ever.

Even After All This Time is an immigrant saga unlike any other. It is the story of a self-made man and the schoolteacher with whom he fell in love, of a family torn apart by war and violence, and of the two little girls who found themselves on their own in America, forced to become strong young women before they even had a childhood.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In February 1979, when Afschineh Latifi was just ten years old, her father, a colonel under the Shah of Iran, was imprisoned by Khomeini's soldiers. Afschineh and her three siblings were left in the care of their mother, who did everything in her power to free her husband from jail, and who struggled to survive in a newly fundamentalist society that was openly hostile to women." "In the torturous weeks and months that followed, Mrs. Latifi and her husband communicated by writing notes to each other on tiny squares of paper, and bribing the guards to pass them back and forth." "In late May, Colonel Latifi was executed, shot with little fanfare on a prison rooftop, and the story begins. Fearing for the safety of her daughters, Mrs. Latifi made a heartrending decision: She sent Afschineh and her sister, Afsaneh, abroad, knowing it might be years before she embraced them again - if ever." Even After All This Time is the story of a self-made man and the schoolteacher with whom he fell in love, of a family torn apart by war and violence, and of the two little girls who found themselves on their own in America, forced to become strong young women before they even had a childhood.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

"Be like a nail!" Latifi's mother would scold when the author cried. These words are a testament to the grit Latifi displays throughout this wonderful memoir. The author was 10 and her sister 11 in May 1979, when their father, a military officer under the Shah, was executed by Khomeini's soldiers. Only 34, their mother was left to raise four young children (she also had two sons) in a newly fundamentalist society hostile to women. At first, the girls "loved putting on the chadors. It felt like Halloween." But when a villager started bidding on marrying Latifi's then 13-year-old sister, their mother knew they had to leave. Yet visas were routinely denied, passports arbitrarily confiscated. Still, Mrs. Latifi managed to take her daughters to Austria, where they attended a convent school (the boys remained in Tehran). The year in Austria was disastrous; the girls unwittingly spent the family's savings trying to overcome their loneliness. America was the next solution; there, the girls lived with relatives in Virginia and learned to take care of each other. Things turned out all right-the family was finally reunited, the children all chose good careers. Unlike many Iranian memoirs, most of this one takes place outside the country. Still, it's a remarkable, resonating tale. Photos. (Apr.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

This engaging work is part cultural history, part political history, and part memoir. Latifi, a New York City attorney, examines her charmed life before the Iranian revolution in 1979 and the devastating consequences that followed her father's execution in May of that year. Latifi's mother decided to send her two oldest children (ten- and 12-year-old daughters) to Austria and then America. While staying with indifferent relatives in America, the Latifi girls encountered further isolation in the community because of their heritage. It was six years before their mother and two brothers were able to join them; during that time, both sisters went on to successful college and post-college careers. Latifi poignantly recounts coming of age without her mother, honestly relating both the good and the bad, the comical and the dramatic. An homage to the love between her parents and the sacrifices of her mother, this work should be in any public or academic library that contains Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran or Roya Hakakian's Journey from the Land of No. A hard-to-put-down book.-Maria C. Bagshaw, Lake Erie Coll. Lib., Painesville, OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews