Escaped at Thirteen
The True Story of a War Child's Rise to Success
A story of escaping war to thrive abroad, Escaped at Thirteen is an affecting memoir.
Iranian emigrant Alieza Mogadam’s compelling memoir Escaped at Thirteen is about his forced departure from his homeland during the war between Iran and Iraq. He moved from Tehran to Europe and Canada, emerging from his estranged adolescence to become worldly and self-actualized.
Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Mogadam’s secular family found life under the ayatollah’s regime to be oppressive. Indeed, they witnessed as dissidents were rounded up for imprisonment or execution. And these sociopolitical upheavals were further intensified by war with Iraq.
To protect him from being drafted, Mogadam’s family made hurried arrangements for him to attend a Swiss boarding school. He left on the cusp of his thirteenth birthday, escaping “horror” while leaving “all that was familiar and dear.” He experienced “rolling hills, picturesque villages, and shimmering Lake Geneva” as almost surreal, in particular in contrast to war-ravaged Tehran. Later moving from Switzerland to France, he was forced to cultivate self-reliance. He pursued an education in telecommunications and engineering sciences, found part-time employment, and created his own support network abroad. He became part of the buzzing 1990s “digital revolution,” including the advent of mobile phones and the internet.
Keen details about Iran’s revolutionary era fill the early portions of the book, variously reflecting Mogadam’s boyhood perspective and historical vantage points. At the personal level, the book conveys tension within the family, heightened by power outages and continued bombings. Because Mogadam could not comprehend the gravity of the situation as a child, his main complaints are recorded in terms of “lackluster” changes to his favorite television programs; the effect is humanizing. Pathos is further achieved via expressions of guilt that come in time with the book’s coverage of Mogadam navigating an independent life abroad; his connection to his parents and siblings seemed to recede. Still, feelings of obligation remained, feeding into his determination to help his family members relocate to Canada.
The prose is both eloquent and reserved. It is evocative when describing Mogadam’s impoverished student days in Nice and his enjoyment of the local nightlife’s “intoxicating” glamour under the “starry Mediterranean sky.” Its accounts of his academic life and numerous romantic relationships, such as his interlude with an unhappily married woman in France who was generous and enjoyed living away from Iran’s restrictions, are more straightforward, though.
A story about heritage, displacement, and individual triumph, Escaped at Thirteen is an inspiring memoir covering upheavals and reunions.
Reviewed by
Meg Nola
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
