But even the early days of their romance are tinged with a taste of the ugliness of life that ultimately descends on the young lovers. Her naivete is slowly replaced by wonder at his sophistication as she meets him for dates at Cafe Ghanadi where he introduces her to pastries and takes her to parties where she sees boys and girls mingling freely while trying to dance the tango. Through Roya’s smitten eyes, we see her world and its possibilities open up from the safety of Bahman’s arms. Their mutual love of books and Rumi’s poetry is nurtured against the backdrop of the simmering conflict in the country within the safe confines of shop owned by the kind Mr. Juxtaposed against Roya’s meek view of the circumscribed world she inhabits with Zari, her younger sister, and parents who are forward-thinking and have ambitions for their daughters, Bahman is a firebrand, a political activist who is attracted to Roya. Roya meets Bahman, a young man who wants to change the world, in the stationery shop.
Set in 1953 in Tehran with the main protagonist, Roya, a bookish schoolgirl who frequents a neighborhood bookstore, the tender story about young love is painstakingly created with believable characters who live and breathe through a tumultuous time in Iran’s history without becoming stereotypes for a country or a generation. To my list of books by authors from countries that I haven’t yet visited (and don’t seem like I will anytime soon), I just added the beautiful novel “The Stationery Shop of Tehran,” by Marjan Kamali.
As I walk around my neighborhood trying to make peace with cancelled travel plans and graduation ceremonies, I am glad to report that reading has been an unexpected bright spot these last few months. To say that the year 2020 has been unprecedented is nothing more than a cliche as we pass thirteen million Covid infections worldwide at the halfway point on the calendar.
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