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The Stationery Shop of Tehran
- Publisher : Simon & Schuster Ltd (28 November 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 147118501X
- ISBN-13 : 978-1471185014
- Item Weight : 250 g
- Dimensions : 13 x 2.25 x 19.8 cm
1953, Tehran. In a small shop in a country on the brink of unrest, two people meet for the very first time.
Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink. Roya loves nothing better than to while away the hours in the stationery shop run by Mr Fakhri.
Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink. Roya loves nothing better than to while away the hours in the stationery shop run by Mr Fakhri.
The store, stocked with fountain pens, shiny ink bottles, and thick wads of writing paper, also carries translations of literature from all over the world.
Then Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry, is like no one else she has ever met. And she loses her heart at once.
But all around them, as their relationship blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran, life in Tehran is changing.
A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square, shockingly, violence erupts, a result of the coup d'etat that forever changes their country's future, as well as their own.
In the chaos, Bahman never shows. For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she moves on—to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England—until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How is it that you were able to forget me?
Marjan Kamali's beautiful novel explores themes of love and loss, and delivers an unforgettable ending.
‘An enchanting romance’
