Book of Queens

March 1, 2023

University of Montana provost Mahdavi limns the relationship between women and the Caspian horse, an ancient Iranian breed returned from the brink by U.S.-born Iranian horse breeder Louise Firouz, who intersected with the author's family. Mahdavi opens with the woman who rode into battle during the Persian Empire, then moves to her Iranian grandmother's smuggling victims of domestic violence to Afghan oases run by women warriors, to the women who trained horses used by U.S. Green Berets in the region in the early 2000s. With a 20,000-copy first printing. Prepub Alert.

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Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2023
An Iranian American anthropologist weaves a narrative of many threads, involving horses, revolution, and an army of fearless warriors. A specialist in human rights and migration, Mahdavi opens by conjuring an American woman long resident in Iran. Louise Firouz, an aristocratic Virginian and equestrienne, moved to Iran in the 1960s, married a member of a royal lineage, and, fascinated by a rare breed of horse, became one of the world's leading breeders of what came to be called Caspians. "Louise had been riding her entire life, but she had never felt the smooth suppleness of a gait like the horse she had been given," writes Mahdavi, herself an equestrienne, of Firouz's first encounter. Others were riding these horses, too, and Firouz and an Iranian woman named Maryam came to discover the world of women cavalry warriors across the border in Afghanistan who had been fighting invaders for generations, including, most recently, the Taliban. Many of the women Maryam helped recruit were, like her, the victims of spousal abuse and determined to die fighting rather than return to their homes. A story worthy of Graham Greene follows, but with twists that sometimes threaten to become a Gordian knot. When American forces arrived in Afghanistan and encountered the women fighters, one of the women said, "We know the Taliban. But did the Americans want to hear from us? No. They wanted our horses, and then they wanted to find men in the area who would help them fight." Undervaluing those women was but one misstep that would characterize the American war. Mahdavi--a participant in some of these events--closes by probing a mystery involving the fate of Firouz's documentary record of the ancestry of the Caspian horses now living and breeding well beyond the borders of Iran. Horse lovers will be fascinated, but with her focus on geopolitics and women's rights, Mahdavi reaches many audiences.

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July 28, 2023
This sweeping narrative is part memoir, part history, and part adventure tale that takes the reader through generations of Iranian women who became fearless horse warriors and who saved the oldest breed of horse from extinction. In 1925, Mahdavi's grandmother Maryam finds rare, small horses whose lineage goes back to ancient Persia. As she breeds the Caspians, she begins to smuggle abused Iranian women into Afghanistan, where they join women's colonies of horse warriors who battle male warlords and the Taliban. Through the turbulent 1970s, American Louise Firouz and Maryam continue smuggling abused women, Caspians, and supplies to the Afghan women who are at war with the Taliban. In 2001, it is these Afghan women who train the Green Berets to fight the Taliban by using the remarkable little horses. Mahdavi's narrative style immerses the reader into a forgotten world that highlights the strength and courage of women in Middle Eastern history while showing how they saved the oldest breed of horse. Readers interested in women's history or horses will be fascinated by this book.

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Starred review from July 21, 2023

Madhavi (president, Univ. of La Verne; Passionate Uprisings: Iran's Sexual Revolution) details a personal mystery, an equestrian dynasty, and a perpetual state of war in her exploration of the history of the women of the Muslim world who comprise a multigenerational force against warlords, including the Taliban. What starts as a domestic violence refuge for women, led by Madhavi's Iranian grandmother, grows to a network of women who smuggle, protect, and defend their geographical territory. Running parallel to this history is the lineage of horses, known as Caspians, bred to thrive in these conditions. The women unite with Louise Firouz, an American who helps revive the horse breed, and she quickly becomes an ally to their cause. There's an amusing scene in which the Green Berets are impressed by the prowess of these horsewomen, only to be flummoxed when they're assigned to train with men, who they realize are inferior in competence. VERDICT A breathtaking history, told masterfully. These tapestries of geopolitical history are connected by the author's personal search for her ancestors and her quest to confirm the existence of the original stud book that authenticates the Caspian horse lineage.--Tina Panik

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 18, 2023
Anthropologist Mahdavi (Passionate Uprisings) returns with a lively and lyrical chronicle of female freedom fighters in Iran and Afghanistan and the once nearly extinct Caspian horses which they fostered and rode. Mahdavi centers the story around the heroic horsewomen in her own family lineage, beginning in 1920s Iran with her grandmother Maryam. A passionate horsewoman, Maryam was approached by women seeking to escape abusive men in their families, which led to her work smuggling dozens of women and horses across the border into Afghanistan. There they could join a whispered-about all-female army trained on horseback to “protect themselves against the various rounds of invaders.” Maryam’s story intersects with that of equestrian and horse breeder Louise Firouz (1933–2008), with whom she “rediscovered and reestablished the world’s most ancient breed of horses,” the Caspian. Mahdavi charts a free-flowing tale that jumps in time,and includes the experience of a dozen American Army Green Berets inserted into Afghanistan in October 2001 to fight on horseback alongside the Caspian-mounted “women of the cave,” who transfixed the U.S. soldiers with their prowess. This vivid narrative weaves together a surprising array of historical threads to tell a bracingly inspirational tale of women and horses saving each other.

June 10, 2024

Former University of Montana provost Mahdavi's (Passionate Uprisings) latest tells the story of women warriors and revolutionaries and the ancient Caspian horses they rode. Taking inspiration from The Book of Kings, Mahdavi focuses on one character in particular--Gordafarid, the legendary Iranian horsewoman and spiritual foremother of the contemporary women Mahdavi highlights. The author tells of how U.S.-born equestrian Louise Firouz, the author's Iranian grandmother Maryam, and eventually Mahdavi herself strove to protect the Caspian horse breed, supporting a band of rebel horsewomen living in the mountains of western Afghanistan. She connects the stories of individual women with relevant political events such as the 1953 Iranian coup d'�tat, the 1979 revolution, and the war on terror. The audio is narrated by an ensemble of six talented and carefully selected voice actors--author Mahdavi, Shila Ommi, Suzanne Toren, Sitara Attaie, Nikki Massoud, and Sean Rohani--each of whom affords the characters distinct, well-matched voices. VERDICT Narrative nonfiction at its finest. A solid recommendation for horse lovers and listeners interested in women's rights, women warriors, and the ramifications of territorial infighting on a remarkable breed of horses.--Nessa Vahedian Khezerlou

Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.