The Lost Paradise

An engaging memoir that takes you through passages of historical events, family traditions, friendships, survival, and loss in the hope of a better tomorrow.

Grandson of an oil baron who was forced out of southern Russia by the Bolsheviks, Yunes Payandeh was raised in the idyllic, timeless town of Tabriz in northern Persia where he earned centuries-old ways of preparing and preserving foods. At age 17, he left the simplicity of this paradisiacal life for the sophistication of industrial Germany where he studied civil engineering. This is the story of his family, from escaping the Russian Revolution with diamonds hidden in their toothpaste to rebuilding in Tabriz, only to lose everything during the Islamic Revolution in Persia and once again, rebuilding in Germany.