Shamshone: Sun of Assyria: Five Generations of a Family from Iranian Azerbaijan

Brian H. Appleton, is an American writer who spent 20 years abroad, five of which were in Iran in the 1970's. He first visited Iran alone at age 16 for the summer in 1966 and his latest visit was in 2008. His first book also about Iran, about his own experiences there as an American is entitled Tales form The Zirzameen first published in 2007, now in its 3rd edition. It includes his account of the revolution of 1979 and five months after. He was briefly taken hostage and rescued by a heroic Iranian woman. He has written numerous articles for various Iranian American publications including Payam Javan, Payvand, Irandokht, Iranian.com, Persian Heritage Magazine, Persian Mirror. Other works include three volumes volumes of poetry and contributions to several anthologies such as Love and Pomegranites. Appleton was knighted in 2008 into the order of St John Hospitaller for his peace efforts between Iran and the USA. He also holds a BA in Anthropology from George Washington University and a Masters in Ancient History from University of Fundamental Knowledge Oxford network, St Petersburg, Russian Federation.

Sam Sarmecanic is the narrator of his own biography as it is told through his eyes in the first person. He started as the son of a farmer in a small village in Iranian Azerbaijan by the name of Golpachan and through determination and perseverance he went to high school and college in Tehran and grad school in London and founded a very successful civil engineering firm in Tehran which built most of the modern bridges and overpasses. His story is one of a Christian minority in a moslem majority nation. He lived through and witnessed some very interesting periods of modern Iranian history such as the 13 month independence of West Azerbaijan after WWWII as well as the 11 month independence of the Kurdish Republic of Mahabad. He also witnessed the entire Iranian revolution of 1979 eventually emigrating to California in its wake.