Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has revealed that she was saved from despair during captivity in Iran by reading a banned copy of The Handmaid’s Tale.
She said that she and other cellmates maintained a secret library in prison.
She was speaking at the ceremony for the 2023 Booker Prize, which was awarded to Paul Lynch for Prophet Song. The book is set in a totalitarian Ireland, where the government has embraced tyranny and families live in fear of the secret police.
Ms Zaghari-Ratcliffe was arrested by the Iranian authorities in 2006 on spying charges and spent almost six years in detention.
She told the audience: “I spent nine months in solitary confinement with very little access to anything. Being claustrophobic, solitary was a horrific experience.
“After five months my family could bring me…
