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A bibliophile from a world of bibliophobia

Fig 1: Amir standing in one of his favorite places in Leiden, the “hofjes”

Fig 1: Amir standing in one of his favorite places in Leiden, the “hofjes”

Meet Amir, a 39-year-old academic and commercial manager from Iran, who has been living in the Netherlands for two and a half years now. Because of his atheist worldview and his sentiments against the Iranian government, Amir was forced to leave his home country and live in exile. He had to leave almost everything behind, including his immense collection of books, most of which were considered illegal in Iran. The bibliophile had to escape a world of bibliophobia and abandon the texts that helped make him into who he is today.

This story dives into the books that made Amir into the person he is, and how the ideas from those books remain stored within him even after being forced to abandon his entire collection of books and other material life.