Stranger No More by Annahita Parsan

Stranger No More by Annahita Parsan with Craig Borlase ISBN-13: 9780718095710 Paperback: 288 pages Publisher: Thomas Nelson Released: Nov. 14, 2017

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through BookLook.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Annahita Parsan was born into a Muslim family in Iran and grew up with the simple hope of one day finding a good husband, having children, and doing some good in the world. Married and a mother before she turned eighteen, Annahita found herself unexpectedly widowed and trapped for years in an abusive second marriage that she later fled—discovering instead a God who might love her. Stranger No More is the remarkable true story of Annahita’s path from oppression to the life-changing hope of Jesus. Fleeing Iran across the mountains into Turkey, she spent months in the terrifying Agri prison before a miraculous release and flight to Europe, where she and her two children knelt in a church and prayed, “God, from this day on we are Christians.”

As the leader of two congregations in Sweden, Annahita has baptized hundreds of former Muslims since her own conversion and is reminded every day that saying yes to God is always worth the risk.


My Review:
Stranger No More is the memoir of a woman who grew up as a not-very-devote Muslim in Iran. She married young only to lose her first, loving husband in an accident. She was left to raise her baby son alone, so she felt sympathy for a man who had lost his wife in an accident and had a young daughter. They married, but he was very abusive to her and the children. Most of the book was about this abusive marriage and why she didn't leave him. They had to be smuggled out of Iran due to his political views and were imprisoned and tortured in Turkey. They were eventually allowed to move as refugees to Denmark, where she tried to commit suicide and eventually was convinced by friends to leave and hide from her stalker husband. She ended up in Sweden and became a pastor to Muslim refuges.

There's more to the story than that (including yet another failed marriage), but only a small part of the story was about her becoming a Christian and her activities since then. It was a hard story to read because she went through so many horrific experiences. The sad part was that most of these experiences might have been avoided if she hadn't been so ruled by emotion. For example, she wanted to return to Iran to visit her dying grandmother even though she was warned (and seemed to know down deep) that her life would be in danger if she did. But she did it anyway, and, happily, God saved her from the worst consequences of that decision. It's clear that God was at work throughout her life, but she also has suffered a great deal due to the choices she made.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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