Review: The Stationery Shop of Tehran

Express Tribune

22-06-2025

Marjan Kamali is an award-winning, Iranian-American novelist and author, whose books have received both national and international acclaim and have been translated and published in more than 25 languages. Born in Turkey to Iranian parents, she spent her childhood in Turkey, Iran, Germany, and Kenya, before settling in the US. Her debut novel, Together Tea, was published in 2013 and the third and till now the last, The Lion Women of Tehran, was published in 2024. The Stationery Shop under review here is her second book, published in 2019.
Her second book, The Stationery Shop of Tehran is a bittersweet love story that is easy to read but full of intense feelings of love, betrayal, and longing.
Seventeen-year-old Roya is a dreamy, idealistic schoolgirl living amid the political upheaval of 1950s in Tehran. Her favourite pastime is visiting the stationery shop owned by Mr Fakhri, who has stocked it well with shelves and shelves full of beautiful stationery items—fountain pens, shiny ink bottles, and thick pads of writing paper—but also carries translations of literature from all over the world as well as books of Rumi's love poetry. It is here in this shop that she meets 17-year-old Bahman, who is not only handsome but has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi's poetry and who, Mr Fakhri tells Roya, is 'the boy who wants to change the world'. Their romance, along with their mutual love of books and Rumi's poetry, blossoms, and the stationery shop remains their favourite place in all of Tehran.
Her parents are forward-looking with liberal views and have ambitions for their daughters, with the father encouraging them to study well and become the likes of Marie Curie and Hellen Keller. They meet Braham and he is accepted not just because he is their daughter's choice but also because he holds similar political views as them—both are pro-democracy and support the then prime minister Mossadegh, who they believed was the only one who could stand up to the foreign powers.
After the engagement, she feels more comfortable meeting him in public. She meets him for dates at café Ghanadi where he introduces her to pastries and coffee, as against Roya's normal drink—tea—and takes her to parties where she sees boys and girls mingling freely and learns to dance the tango. Everything in her life was changing and her thinking opened politically since she fell in love with Bahman, an activist.
Those were the times when the country was in turmoil and then Bahman suddenly disappears, leaving Roya searching for him. She learns from Mr Fakhri that being an activist he had to go in hiding and the only way to contact him was through letters through Mr Fakhri. She revels this little contact and cherishes his letters.
A few weeks before their planned marriage, for reasons unknown, they decide to secretly marry at the office of Marriage and Divorce, and he asks her to meet at one of the town squares. On the decided day—August 19, 1953, a day marked with violence in Iran's history—Roya alone waited for her fiancé at the town square, but Bahman never showed up. As violence erupts, she returns home dejected and later in the day learns of the coup d'état that changed their country's future (and theirs too). Roya tries desperately to contact Bahman but her efforts remained fruitless. It was as if he had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Heartbroken Roya had to piece her life together for her parents' sake who, wanting her to be happy and safe, enrolled her and her younger sister Zari in Mills College in California.
Both the sisters moved to California, on international scholarships, where they try to fulfil their father's dreams of scientific and literary careers for them. Moving from a sheltered family life into a new country they try to get used to the new ways of life (shaking hands, wearing shoes inside the house), new food (burgers and fries), and together learnt how to practice the nuances of a new language. Zari, whom back in Tehran, Roya often thought of vain and self-absorbed, 'absorbed this new American culture as though she were inhaling the air that would keep her from drowning', while Roya took her time. However, as time passed Roya too moved on, met and married Walter, and rebuilt her life. She is apparently happy with him and her life, though there had been difficult times such as the loss of her daughter.
Yet such was her love for Bahman that no matter how many years went by, whenever Roya was alone in her thoughts, it was Bahman she reflected on.
Though the readers' direct contact with Bahman was lost, we learn that four and a half years after the coup, or to say four and a half years since Roya and Bahman were to marry, Bahman married another woman. Bahman's friend Jahangir would sometimes pass on some news to Roya. It was from him that she learnt that Bahman was (ironically) 'working in the oil industry. Just as his mother wanted. Roya imagined him … going to work to learn how to maximise the profits of oil.'
Through flashback, the reader learns about Bahman's past and his connection with Mr Fakhri. The story about the young lovers is pieced together through letters, that Bahman wrote to Roya but never sent. And then, sixty years after being separated and leading separate lives fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that haunted her for more than half a century: Why didn't you come? Why and where did you disappear? How is it that you were able to forget me?
Not only Roya but Bahman too wanted to know what happened and why Roya didn't come to meet him at the town square sixty years ago on that fateful day. Bahman had lost not only Roya but all the work he had done to bring about political change in his country.
It is almost till the very end that the readers remain guessing what happened to Bahman and why he didn't come to the town square where he had promised to meet Roya and didn't even try to contact her later.
One feels sad when one learns who manipulated and played with the fates of the young lovers, but I will leave it to the readers to discover it for themselves as writing any further would spoil the suspense that one carries till the end.
The book is set in the Iran of 1950s (at least the first half of the book) when the country was in grips of political upheaval. During this devastating political havoc of 1953, that disrupted Roya and Bahman's lives, Mohammad Mossadegh was the prime minister of Iran. Many people in Iran loved him and believed that he was their democratic leader who had the courage to stand up to foreign powers who wanted their oil. He was 'hope' for the many people who felt he was the right man to achieve democracy.
On the other hand, the anti-Mosaddegh people and the supporters of the Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi) were not happy; they believed that Mosaddegh was a communist and not only wanted to replace him but wanted him dead. It was also believed that the anti-Mossadegh people had the support of Western powers as Mossadegh wanted control over Iran's oil.
Demonstrations had been taking place and were getting ugly and frightening. Protesters were shouting 'Marg Bar Tudeh; Death to the Communists'. (Tudeh is Iranian communist party, formed in 1941) 'Murg Bar Mossadegh' (death to Mossadegh). After a failed coup attempt earlier, on August 19, 1953, (the day when Roya was waiting for Bahman at the town square), the protesters 'attacked the prime minister's house, looted some of its contents, ran off with the rest. Destroyed it.' Though Mossadegh managed to escape, the coup had succeeded. The world had changed forever. It is an eye opener how foreign powers support people with vested interests to prevent others from bringing a change in the national interest.
Along with the history, the readers get a glimpse of life and culture of Iran in the 1950. The country was much liberal under the Shah, 'who continued the advocacy for the rights of women that his father Reza Shah had begun.' Roya's mother had 'dropped the hijab as soon as Reza Shah enforced a no-veil policy for women back in the 1930s. She welcomed reforms for the emancipation of women even as her more religious relatives cringed at farangi foreign-embracing ways.'
There is also an interesting account of Roya visiting a local bath (hammam) where attendants give her a bath and pamper her; though there still are hammams in Iran, most people have baths in their homes. We note that even at that time political awareness was such that even the attending girls at the hammam openly expressed their views.
There are multiple references to Nowruz—the Persian New Year—and detailed descriptions of recipes using saffron and rose water which fit seamlessly into the narrative, first in Tehran where we learn of the various Persian dishes that the girls' mother prepares and later they become Roya's connection to her past. She introduces Walter to Persian cuisine and often cooks them for him.
Along with the love story of the two teenagers and life in Iran in the 1950, the book exposes the complexities of relationships and how they influence the lives of the loved ones, as well as issues of immigration and cultural assimilation, aging, regrets, sorrows, and quirks of fate.
The fact that the book brings to life the political history of Iran makes it worth reading by those who love political fiction as well as those who want to familiarise themselves with the political history and culture of Iran.
Rizwana Naqvi is a freelance journalist and tweets @naqviriz; she can be reached at [e-mail]
All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer