In 1971, an Iranian boy was hastily adopted by an American military family stationed in Teheran. The family was secretly paid thousands of dollars to swiftly get the boy out of Iran. After coming to America and enduring years of abuse by his adoptive father, the young man fled his adoptive family in 1997 and began a twelve-year quest to discover his true identity. The Hidden One is an autobiographical memoir which chronicles the events and discoveries that bring the author to the realization that he is the first, or less possibly the second, biological son of the Shah (King) of Iran. Exactly where the author stands in the line of succession to Iran's former Peacock Throne remains a mystery. No one with knowledge of his royal lineage will speak because billions of dollars are at stake and the Iranian royal family remains very powerful. Join the author as he searches for his birth mother, for the truth about his identity as a prince, and as he discovers that he is The Hidden One.
Cyrus Nowia-Pahlavi is the first-born son of the Shah of Iran. In the century of his birth, scientific breakthroughs in DNA and the transformation of access to information--from library research to the bullet train of the internet--will soon furnish proof of his claim.
Beginning with an incredulous suggestion in 1998 from a friend that he 'looked and acted' like the late Shah, Cyrus Nowia-Palavi, a highly successful salesman in Florida, found his new life's purpose: to confirm his true biological and cultural identity.
Knowing next to nothing about the Iranian royal family, he began an unrelenting study in a public library. As he wove the facts of his early life in a Teheran orphanage as Hassan Hashemi Nowia with the history of Iran's royal family under the Shah, he discovered undeniable coincidences.
At his adoption in 1971 by a U.S. Air Force enlisted man serving in Iran, he was named Gary Zancone. After sexually abusive adolescence and his remarkable adult encounters with people who knew the Shah personally, he found a purpose more powerful than any other.
As he describes in "The Hidden One," a remarkable development occurs in 2000: a former editor for ABC News, Paul Scoskie, comes into the store when Cyrus is working and is immediately struck and then convinced that Cyrus is the 'lost son of the Shah of Iran.
"The Hidden One" chronicles his determined outreach to those throughout the world who know the truth about his lineage. In October 2002 he legally changed his name to Cyrus Nowia-Palavi.
In December of 2009, Cyrus Nowia-Palavi was contacted by his biological sister on Facebook!
As he had from the beginning in 1998, nothing stood in the way of his focused journey of discovery. At her invitation he booked travel to Brussels, left his job, sold one of his last valuable possessions, his Mercedes, and met her on December 26, 2009. They have DNA testing that reveals the truth about his royal lineage.
Cyrus Nowia-Palavi's search is not for the vast fortune, the billions of dollars controlled by the Palavi heirs, as it is for the drive of the human identity to bond with the family that was forced to give him up because of who he really is. Cyrus Nowia-Pahlavi was hidden from himself and the world.
