“The Power of the Novel” is a celebration of reading, an homage to the healing, redemptive power of literature. But what makes this story so moving is the sad, surprising analogy made between the little girl Lolita and the women of Tehran. The women in the story, who meet in secret to read the bizarre, disturbing, and beautiful Nabakov classic, see themselves as victims of a man’s monstrous dream—The Ayatollah—just as Lolita is a victim of Humbert’s monstrous dream. Reading helps the women escape their lives and to re-imagine themselves. Fiction, discussed in this context, reminds you of its great subversive power. And bonus: Jeremy Iron’s reading of the text is fantastic. This piece could go into a show that deals with education, the Middle East, the treatment of women, or reading. Really, it could go anywhere; it’s interesting enough.