Contemporary Authors

• Couchsurfing in Iran: Revealing a Hidden World - 2018 Greystone Books, https://smile.amazon.com/Couchsurfing-Iran-Revealing-Hidden-World/dp/1771642807/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1529815267&sr=8-1

• Black Inc Books - https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/authors/stephan-orth

  Stephan Orth’s three books, Sorry, We Missed the Runway, Couchsurfing in Iran and Couchsurfing in Russia, have all been major bestsellers in Germany. They have been translated into ten foreign languages. Two of his feature stories, one about Russia and one about China, won the Columbus Award for travel writers. He has written for Der Spiegel, National Geographic, Time Off and the Courier Mail. Orth owns five backpacks, four sleeping bags and three tents, but no wheeled suitcase. Website: stephan-orth.de/english.html

QUOTED: "a breezy narrative that offers a couch-level view of Iran that you won't find in travel guides."

Orth, Stephan: COUCHSURFING IN IRAN
Kirkus Reviews.
(Mar. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Orth, Stephan COUCHSURFING IN IRAN Greystone Books (Adult Nonfiction) $16.95 5, 1 ISBN: 978-1-77164-280-4
A German-based journalist chronicles his travels to Iran.
Throughout this book, Orth, the former online travel editor for Der Spiegel, dispels myths about Iranians, whom he shows to be friendly, flirty (especially in text messages), warm, great dancers, and uncommonly hospitable. When he asked why Iranians hate America, one of his couchsurfing hosts responded, "not the Iranians--the government." As the author demonstrates, when people are connecting with people on a personal level, the enmity that exists on the official level dissipates. One Iranian told Orth something that he loved so much he adopted the adage as his own, and he closes two consecutive chapters with it: "There are no bad places if the reason you are traveling is to meet people." He met a wide variety of people at vacation oases, parties (featuring dancing and alcohol among other forbidden fruits), battlefields that serve as memorials, and especially in homes, where strangers open their doors as hosts. This book is as much about the titular method of vacationing as it is about the destination, as "couchsurfing," though officially forbidden and theoretically in violation of the law, proved to be a particularly effective way of getting to know these people. And the trend is worldwide; the author documents how "fourteen million couchsurfers, hundreds of thousands of members of Hospitality Club, BeWelcome, Global Freeloaders, and Warm Showers, open their doors to strangers." A phenomenon facilitated by the internet and smartphones, couchsurfing allows for cultural exchange outside the conventional channels of tourism, in a realm where money rarely changes hands. It is here that Orth revels in the paradoxes and contradictions he encountered--how Adele can be so popular in a country where women are forbidden to sing in public, how a public stance of religious fundamentalism becomes far more relaxed, even defied, in private, and how Iranians struggle with concepts of courtship and marriage that seem alien to Western visitors.
1 of 3 6/23/18, 11:29 PM
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
A breezy narrative that offers a couch-level view of Iran that you won't find in travel guides.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Orth, Stephan: COUCHSURFING IN IRAN." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Mar. 2018. Book Review
Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A530650596/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=88abfd2a. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A530650596

QUOTED: "Peeking behind the curtained windows ... of any city is interesting, but Tehran ... is no ordinary city."

2 of 3 6/23/18, 11:29 PM

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Couchsurfing in Iran
Andie Paloutzian
Booklist.
114.15 (Apr. 1, 2018): p48. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Couchsurfing in Iran. By Stephan Orth. May 2018. 280p. Greystone, paper, $16.95 (97817716428041.915.5.
Peeking behind the curtained windows and closed doors of any city is interesting, but Tehran, given Iran's highly restrictive society, is no ordinary city. For 62 days, journalist Orth broke the law by couchsurfing across the country; that is, drawing on a vast online network to stay with 22 hosts, moving from couch to rug to cot, seeing everyday life, and getting more than the tourist's experience. In his unusual travelogue, one that offers a new story of this land beyond the limited narrative of headlines, Orth writes of how to pay for things, how to eat, even how to politely accept free goods. Though couchsurfing is illegal and therefore dangerous, the cultural tradition of hospitality supersedes. The act of couchsurfing is interesting, too, because it involves travelers coordinating their adventures with the daily patterns of their hosts. Hence Orth discovered two Irans. One is a place of strict religious norms, and the other is a secret world of relatable life and forbidden cocktails; both exist under the gaze of the ayatollahs from their omnipresent propaganda posters.--Andie Paloutzian
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Paloutzian, Andie. "Couchsurfing in Iran." Booklist, 1 Apr. 2018, p. 48. Book Review Index Plus,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534956843/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=709dd663. Accessed 24 June 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534956843
3 of 3 6/23/18, 11:29 PM

• Los Angeles Times
  http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-couchsurfing-iran-questions-answers-20150306-story.html
  Word count: 1378

  QUOTED: "Every time I met a fellow traveler who had been to Iran, I heard stories about a totally underrated and incredibly friendly country that's completely different from what you would expect from the media image. I just had to go there and see it for myself."
  "Friends were troubled about my safety, especially because I planned some journalistic research in spite of traveling with a tourist visa. What concerned me most were the words of an Iranian colleague who had fled from his home country in the early '80s. He said: 'You are crazy. I don't understand what you are doing there.'"
  "I never witnessed a hospitality that would come close to my experiences in Iran."

  Couch-surfing in Iran: Any questions?
  Christopher Reynolds
  By Christopher Reynolds
  Mar 11, 2015 | 8:30 AM
  Couch-surfing in Iran: Any questions?
  German travel writer Stephan Orth, right, poses with a family he met on a two-month couch-surfing visit to Iran in 2014. (Stephan Orth)

  Stephan Orth, a 35-year-old German writer and editor, went to Iran for two months last year. While there he got arrested (and released two hours later). He got fake-married (and released 10 days later). He couch-surfed in the homes of a dominatrix and a black-market winemaker, among others. And he came back convinced that Iranians are the most hospitable people he has ever visited.

  He describes the adventure in a book that was published Monday, "Couchsurfing im Iran."

  The bad news is that the book is in German — that's why the title is "im" Iran, not "in." And there's no English-language publisher yet. But Orth speaks English and has stories to tell — for instance, the day he was walking around the former U.S. Embassy in Tehran, where graffiti paintings show the Statue of Liberty with a skull as a symbol of death.

  "A guy walked past and said 'Welcome to Iran!' with a big smile," Orth told me. "He was just being friendly and didn't realize how ironic it sounded in those surroundings."

  Orth also recalled a sublime moment "sitting on a rooftop in the oasis city of Yazd after sunset. We were above the mud brick buildings of the old town, saw the mountains and the desert on the horizon and listened to the songs of the muezzins."

  One thing Orth wants readers to know up front: He's not a fan of the Iranian government, just the people (many of whom he gave fake names in the book).

  Given the history of animosity between U.S. and Iranian leaders, Orth said, he wasn't surprised that many young Iranians asked him, "What on Earth gives the nuclear power U.S.A. the right to tell any other country not to have nuclear weapons?" He was surprised, however, that many young Iranians said they hoped one day to study in the U.S. "so they could live in a free country." (Here's the U.S. State Department perspective.)

  Also, Orth made his travels in April and May of 2014, just before Washington Post Tehran bureau chief Jacob Rezaian was arrested by Iranian authorities on unspecified charges in July. Rezaian remains in custody. Orth, who said he was able to return to Germany with all of his notebooks and photos from Iran, called Rezaian's arrest "quite disturbing."

  Here are seven emailed questions and answers from Orth, whose day job is as a travel editor for the German news site Der Spiegel.

  Before we get to the couches, talk about the day you got arrested. Where were you, when and why?

  That was in Nowsud, near the border to Iraq. Two guys in traditional kurdish dresses introduced themselves as policemen and asked for my passport. I didn't give it to them because I heard of scams where men posing as officials would take your ID to sell it on the black market. These two guys turned out to be real, though, and accompanied by some soldiers with machine guns they took me to the police station to search all my luggage. I was lucky they didn't find my notebooks .… They also looked at some pictures in my camera; again I was lucky: I had photos of dancing girls without head scarf, of an atomic power plant and of military facilities — there would have been lots of uncomfortable questions if they'd found that.

  How did the idea of exploring Iran take shape?

  Every time I met a fellow traveler who had been to Iran, I heard stories about a totally underrated and incredibly friendly country that's completely different from what you would expect from the media image. I just had to go there and see it for myself.

  Since the revolution and hostage-taking of the late 1970s — and all the saber-rattling since then — just the word "Iran" puts many Americans on edge. What did your friends in Germany and the rest of Europe have to say when you shared your plans?

  One warned me of terrorists on every corner of the street, another advised not to look any woman in the eyes. Friends were troubled about my safety, especially because I planned some journalistic research in spite of traveling with a tourist visa. What concerned me most were the words of an Iranian colleague who had fled from his home country in the early '80s. He said: "You are crazy. I don't understand what you are doing there."

  Many Americans don't realize how strong the custom of desert hospitality is, or how much the Iranian on the street might differ from his or her government. Who were your hosts, how did you find them, and what were they like?

  I have been to more than 50 countries, but I never witnessed a hospitality that would come close to my experiences in Iran. People would go out of their way to make sure I had a great time. I found my hosts via the websites Couchsurfing.com and Hospitalityclub.org, and was lucky to get an amazing cast of characters: I stayed with a dominatrix in Tehran, with a winemaker in western Iran who illegally produces 600 liters of red per year and with a guy who lived just 500 meters away from the infamous [nuclear] power plant in Bushehr.

  Tell us about your fake marriage.

  A photographer and friend from Germany was joining my trip for 10 days. Since a man and a woman cannot book a twin hotel room without being married in Iran, we pretended to be just that. We even got rings at the bazaar. Funny thing was: After just a few days, we started to develop quirks and habits that resembled a long-term real marriage. The nicknames. Ridiculous jealousy. Sentences starting with "You always …". Sometimes it was easy to forget where we were — and how random and unfair it is that we had the luck to be born in a country where people enjoy a lot of freedom.

  The Iranians you met — how much experience did they have outside Iran?

  Most of them had never left Iran. In many countries its not easy for them to get a visa. They use couch-surfing to invite the world to their homes and learn about other countries. A few, though, had been to Thailand or Turkey where they partied a lot and enjoyed their time without the usual strict laws.

  It certainly seems you fell in love with the place and the people. But now that you've written this book, you can't go back unless there's another revolution. Right?

  I knew that before I even started my trip, and I talked to an… expert who confirmed that it wouldn't be a good idea to apply for another Iran visa too soon. But that was the price I was willing to pay for a good story. To be honest, now it's not easy for me to cope with that — it was a very emotional trip, and I'd love to board a plane tomorrow to Tehran to visit my Persian friends.

• Lexplorers
  http://lexplorers.com/book-review-couchsurfing-im-iran/
  Word count: 1076

  QUOTED: "Couchsurfing im Iran is fun to read partly because of the illegal and/or dangerous things that Orth gets away with during his Iran travels; it would clearly be a very different book if he had ended up in Evin Prison like the many other foreign journalists (and other innocent visitors) arrested regularly in Iran."
  "These are not the kinds of stories we are used to hearing about people in Iran, and Stephan Orth does a fantastic job in Couchsurfing im Iran opening the door and letting us meet the people inside."

  Book Review: Couchsurfing Im Iran

  by David · October 12, 2017
  Couchsurfing Im Iran: Meine Reise hinter verschlossene Türen
  by: Stephan Orth
  Lexplorers rating: 8.0/10
  Amazon (amazon.de) average customer rating: 4.3/5

  Next up in our series of Lexplorers reviews of “What Were They Thinking? travel adventures,” today we discuss Couchsurfing Im Iran: Meine Reise hinter verschlossene Türen (“Couchsurfing in Iran: My Travels Behind Closed Doors”) by Stephan Orth. This book is a perfect follow-on to Wendy Simmons’s solo journey to North Korea, since both describe solo travel adventures in countries that few of us will ever be able to explore personally. (As the title indicates, Couchsurfing im Iran is written in German, but it will be appearing in English in May 2018 with the title Couchsurfing in Iran: Revealing a Hidden World.)

  In Couchsurfing im Iran, Stephan Orth, a journalist at Spiegel Online, shares his experience traveling around Iran in 2014. Unlike Wendy Simmons, whose entire visit to North Korea was monitored and micromanaged by official government handlers, Orth was able to freely travel around Iran and stay with regular people offering accommodations online via couchsurfing.com (official slogan: “Stay with Locals and Meet Travelers”). The recurring theme of the book is that the day-to-day life of ordinary Iranians is nothing like the negative image of the country that is common in the West. Almost without exception, the Iranian people that Stephan Orth meets are friendly, hospitable, and eager to welcome him into their lives.

  The rewarding personal experiences described in Couchsurfing im Iran did not come without risk. The premise of the trip itself was a risky undertaking for both Orth and his hosts, since “das Couchsurfing” is illegal (Verboten!) in Iran; the Iranian government apparently fears that allowing informal accommodations such as couchsurfing would enable spies to move about undetected within the country. Also risky was the fact that Orth was a journalist, an occupation that is aggressively persecuted by the Iranian government; he lied on his Iranian visa application by not revealing his true occupation, which enabled him to enter the country but would have put him at higher risk if caught. Taking on further risk, Orth kept detailed notebooks during his travels and took lots of photos of things he wasn’t supposed to (military facilities, unveiled women, alcoholic beverages). At one point, he even got arrested, and his luggage was searched by police and soldiers with machine guns. Somehow they didn’t find his notebooks or the pictures of forbidden things or any evidence of his being a journalist, and he was eventually released. At which point his guide tells him that two “spies” were arrested two years before at the same place, and they are still in prison in Tehran.

  Couchsurfing im Iran is fun to read partly because of the illegal and/or dangerous things that Orth gets away with during his Iran travels; it would clearly be a very different book if he had ended up in Evin Prison like the many other foreign journalists (and other innocent visitors) arrested regularly in Iran. For example, Orth’s arrest happened not far from where the three American hikers had been arrested in 2009; they ended up in Evin for years. And Orth’s visit was just months before Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian of the Washington Post was arrested and imprisoned for 18 months. Given the many risks he took, Orth got very lucky to have completed his travels without a stop in Evin; in addition to luck, he likely benefited from traveling as a German, vs. as an American or especially an Iranian-American. Fortunately we all get to benefit from Orth’s luck too, because he wrote this very entertaining book about his couchsurfing experiences in Iran.

  And what fun experiences he had, joining regular Iranians in a wide range of illicit actvities. Even though couchsurfing is officially prohibited in Iran, Orth reported finding over 13,000 Iranian members on the couchsurfing.com site. Some of the hosts he stayed with did take some precautions, such as sneaking him into the house so the neighbors wouldn’t see him, or cautioning him not to speak English around the neighbors. A single woman hosting a man in her home is extra risky, so some female hosts referred him to male friends who could host him instead. But then again one of his couchsurfing hosts was a dominatrix famous in the Tehran S&M scene for taking and posting pictures of “forbidden games with her slaves.” Another host had a side business producing hundreds of gallons of (illegal) red wine. Orth even stayed with one host who held a pool party with bikini-clad, veil-free, Iranian women. One of his hosts had previously lost her license as a tourist guide because of hosting couchsurfers in her home, but she still continued to host them, as well as to (illegally) act as a tourist guide. One host (appropriately nicknamed Funman) invited Orth to take his son’s place at a wedding they were invited to; at the wedding Orth gets a friendly Hitler salute from another (male) guest who tells him that he has always wanted to kiss a German man. These are not the kinds of stories we are used to hearing about people in Iran, and Stephan Orth does a fantastic job in Couchsurfing im Iran opening the door and letting us meet the people inside.

  Stephan Orth had such a positive experience researching and writing Couchsurfing im Iran that he followed it up with a similar trip to Russia. The resulting book, Couchsurfing in Russland, was recently published. We look forward to reading this sequel, and we hope that Orth is already working on the logical conclusion of the Couchsurfing Trilogy: Couchsurfing in North Korea.

  Share this Lexplorers post:

• Ottowa Life
  http://www.ottawalife.com/article/book-review-couchsurfing-in-iran?c=18
  Word count: 267

  Book Review: Couchsurfing in Iran
  Book Review: Couchsurfing in Iran

  Couchsurfing in Iran • Revealing a Hidden World
  By Stephan Orth

  269 pages • ISBN 978-1-77164-280-4

  A modern-day glimpse into the surprising reality of life in Iran.

  Iran: a destination that is seldom seen by westerners yet often misunderstood. A country that simultaneously “enchants and enrages” those who visit it. A place where leading a double life has become the norm.

  In Couchsurfing in Iran, award-winning author Stephan Orth spends sixty-two days on the road in this mysterious Islamic republic to provide a revealing, behind-the-scenes look at life in one of the world’s most closed societies. Experiencing daily what he calls the “two Irans” that coexist side by side –the “theocracy, where people mourn their martyrs” in mausoleums, and the “hide-and-see-kocracy, where people hold secret parties and seek worldly thrills instead of spiritual bliss”- he learns that Iranians have become experts in navigating around their country’s strict laws.

  Getting up close and personal with locals, he covers more than 8,400 kilometers, peering behind closed doors and blank windows to uncover the inner workings of a country where public show and private reality are strikingly opposed.

  Stephan Orth is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author. For nine years, he was online travel editor for Der Spiegel, one of Germany’s top news magazines, and he has contributed to National Geographic, the Courier-Mail, and Time Off magazine, among other publications. He lives in Hamburg, Germany.
  By: Maria Alejandra