Blood and Oil: Memoirs of a Persian Prince

Prince Manucher Farmanfarmaian is a scion of Iran's most aristocratic family. He was the Shah's oil minister and fled Iran when his entire family was banned by Khomeini. Born into his father's harem (a compound of houses, each controlled by a different wife) with 35 brothers and sisters, one of whom married the head of Iran's Communist Party, another killed by the Shah, Farmanfarmaian was the principal government negotiator with the British-owned Anglo-Iranian Oil Company until its nationalization by Mossadeq (Farmanfarmaian's cousin) in 1951. Farmanfarmaian and his journalist daughter Roxane have written a memoir which is also a history of modern Iran, told by one of the principal members of the establishment.