Persian Mirrors

The book takes its title from the small mirror tiles that decorate palaces and shrines across Iran, and its argument is similar: the country seen by foreigners is only a set of broken pieces. Elaine Sciolino, a longtime New York Times correspondent, uses her time there to piece together a fuller picture. Her account moves past the headlines to the everyday lives, customs and private worlds of ordinary Iranians.

Beneath the surface, she describes a struggle that is less about borders than about what the nation itself should become. Readers meet the people, places and tensions that shape that contest, and the reporting is vivid and detailed throughout.