The Stationery Shop

I’ve been wanting to read Marjan Kamali‘s novel, The Stationery Shop, and have heard so much about it. Set in Iran in the 1950s, it follows two teenagers, Roya and Bahman, who fall in love over books and political activism. But then they get separated and Bahman breaks up with Roya in a letter. She uproots her life, leaving Tehran for college and a new life in the United States. Sixty years later, will she finally get answers to what happened to Bahman on that fateful day?

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali
Audience	Adult
Genre	Historical Fiction
Setting	Iran
Number of Pages	336
Format I Read	Paperback
Original Publication Date	June 18, 2019

Official Summary

From the award-nominated author of Together Tea and The Lion Women of Tehran, a poignant, “powerful” (The Wall Street Journal) and “affecting novel about first love” (Real Simple) that explores loss, reconciliation, and the quirks of fate.

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.

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—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran.

A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square when violence erupts—a result of the coup d’etat that forever changes their country’s future. 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?

Review

The Stationery Shop covers two timelines, one in 2013, and one in 1953. Roya is in her late 70s in 2013, with an established life alongside her husband Walter in Massachusetts. But her heart is still stuck 60 years earlier, when she was a teenager in Tehran, falling in love for the first time.

One thing I loved about The Stationery Shop was its illustration of 1950s Iran. We get a sense for the warmth of the culture and the delicious variety of food. It was also a time of political upheaval, on the brink of major changes for the country.

Roya loved books and a specific stationery shop where she could buy them. This was also a hotspot for political activists, including Bahman. The shopkeeper Mr. Fakhri (something of a matchmaker!) introduced the two teenagers, and they quickly fell in love, despite their families being against the match. Even when they couldn’t see each other, I loved how they communicated via notes in books, with Mr. Fakhri as their willing middleman. This was cute, and felt rather Romeo and Juliet to me.

But the political atmosphere would prove devastating. When Roya and Bahman try to see each other in person, intending to marry soon after, she shows up, but he doesn’t. To be fair, a coup d’etat got in the way of that. But why does Bahman break up with her weeks later in a simple letter?

From here, the story honestly just felt too sad for me. Roya goes on to build an entirely new life in the United States, first attending college in California, then marrying Walter and moving to Massachusetts with him. It’s sixty years before Roya finally connects the pieces back to her long lost love, Bahman. The whole ending made me cry so much, and I still haven’t recovered. It’s a captivating story, but so tragic.

Final Thoughts

The Stationery Shop is a beautiful novel that brings 1950s Iran to life, but its heartbreaking story of love torn apart was honestly too sad for me. Even so, this is well written, and I hope to read more from Marjan Kamali soon.