The Stationery Shop of Tehran

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Some things stay with you, haunt you. Some embers nestle into your skin. Shots cannot be forgotten. And neither can that force of love.”

Wiping away tears... I loved The Stationary Shop so much! Author Marjan Kamali tells us about a love story gone wrong among political unrest in Iran 1950s. In chapter 18, Bahman reveals the struggles of living with a mentally ill mother in Tehran. Discuss mental illness and its stigma as a group. How was mental illness viewed throughout time, and how does the treatment of the mentally ill vary across cultures? How is the way that Bahman and his father care for his mother countercultural?I’ve been waiting,” a voice suddenly said in Farsi, and Roya’s body buzzed. That voice had both energized and comforted her when they were inseparable.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. The characters in The Stationery Shop experience several devastating losses, from love to identity to miscarriage. How do they recover, and how do those losses forever change them? Can your group relate to these sorrows? What losses in your lives have forever changed you?

Kayhan Life caught up with Kamali for a conversation about the television adaptation, her life and writing career. This is historical fiction done right! The Stationery Shop is the beautifully told story of Roya Kayhani, a 17-year old lover of Persian poetry and Bahman Aslan, an energetic young man already known as a political activist. The two meet in Mr. Fakhri’s stationery shop and begin to fall in love. Despite the objections of Bahman’s class-conscious mother, they become engaged. Their passionate romance is set against the political passions of 1953 Iran. Roya and Bahman decide to marry and arrange to meet, but a coup d’état against Mossadegh causes chaos in Tehran and Bahman does not show. Heartbroken, Roya decides to go to college in America where she meets and marries a young Boston law student and settles down. Sixty years later, she discovers that Bahman is a resident in a nursing home nearby. Roya decides to visit him and finally piece together the truth about their ill-fated story. Before meeting as a group, each member should research the events of the 1953 Iranian coup d'état. Discuss your perceptions of Iran’s relationship with the US before and after learning about the coup. Did this research change what you think about the history of US foreign policy? Why or why not? The Stationery Shop” is about a young man and woman who are separated by the events of 1953. Why did you choose this particular episode in Iran’s history as the central event in your novel? I was pleasantly surprised as to the unpredictable direction this storyline went! It's a story about strong family bonds, about betrayal and regret, about love, loss and reconciliation.

Usually, the news in the U.S. focuses on Iranian ideologues, post-1979. What’s often missing is the larger context of the history of the country.Walter sighed. He held up five fingers to indicate to Claire that his wife believed in the five stars.

She planned to secretly marry Bahman at the office of Marriage and Divorce...a few weeks before their real wedding. But on August 19th, 1953....when demonstrations - and violence in the streets were at an all time high....during the overthrow of Mossadegh....the day hundreds were killed... Sad but lovely. This is the kind of book you will enjoy reading indoors with a glass of wine or a mug of tea. Because tissues are involved. the Stationery Shop is the story of a teenage girl in tehran during 1953 just before the iranian coup and the whirlwind romance she experiences with a boy (who is going to change the world) she meets in a small, cozy stationery shop. Roya’s mother had always said that our fate is written on our foreheads when we’re born. It can’t be seen, can’t be read, but it’s there in invisible ink all right, and life follows that fate. No matter what.”

Stationery Superstore UK

I am good,” she said. She’d learned to say that from Americans: I’m good, I’m fine, it’s all okay, okey-dokey. Easy-peasy Americanisms. She knew how to do it. Her heart pounded, but she looked steadily at Claire. The Stationary Shop was a beautiful and emotional story. Great for book clubs, lovers of historical fiction, and love stories.