The Stationery Shop of Tehran

Product Information

Yes, yes I am because I’m a mood reader and have no shelf-control! *lol* Bad combination? Maybe, but I like to keep my books diverse and “The Stationary Shop of Tehran” is something totally different to what I usually read. It’s been a while I read a historical romance and I’m very curious about this one. Rolls of toilet papers, napkins, paper towels, anything helping you out to clean the nasty evidence of your ugly cries! When 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—she loses her heart at once. And, as their romance blossoms, the modest little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran. but in one day, in one afternoon, foreign powers and corrupt Iranians destroyed all his dreams. What had he learned? What regret did he have?

Roya stood uneasily in front of the desk. She was suddenly overwhelmed by the smell of ammonia and some kind of stew. Beef? Definitely beef with onions. The heat, cranked up to compensate for the New England cold, made the stew smell overpowering. She couldn’t believe she had actually come here. The radiators hissed, wheelchairs squeaked, it all suddenly felt like a terrible mistake. This said, let’s get to the heart of it. One of the biggest issues I had with the book was the question on which kind of aspect it wanted to focus. At first there was a strong emphasis on politics and I would have been fine with this, but then the story changed course and became a tragic love story instead. There were a couple of time jumps that jarred with the narration and I didn’t always understand why the author chose to tell the story like this. I’m convinced that sometimes a different narration style would have been a better choice and would have made it easier to follow the overall tale and timeline. From the blurb the reader already knew that Roya and Bahman would have no future together but the way their lives drifted apart was truly heart-breaking. I’m honored to have Mozhan Marnò and the team at HBO and A Penny for Your Thoughts Entertainment work on this TV adaptation. I will serve as consulting producer on the series.

Book Summary

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. Roya and her sister Zari came to California- both having received an international scholarship at Mills College in Oakland....( a small private college not far from UC Berkeley)....

Perhaps I was hoping for a story with a greater focus on the political conflict in 1950s Tehran but The Stationery Shop is first and foremost a love story. This love story features many clichés and banalities which seem more fitting of a soap opera.Go on, then,” Roya said gently to her husband. She raised herself on her toes to kiss Walter’s freshly shaven cheek. The crepey skin, his Irish Spring soap scent. She wanted to reassure him. The coup d’Etat conspirators looted the prime misters house - burned some of the contents -completely destroying his house. The coop had succeeded. The world would be changed the world forever.

the author has a way of being so real and honest with the reader about these characters. she's able to grab that special aspect of human interaction and vulnerability and put it into words and give you a glimpse of something so personal and precious.Bahman literally vanished from Roya’s life on the very same day that they had planned to meet at Sephah Square at Cafe Ghandi.....the same cafe where Roya first tasted coffee during the New Year holiday: ‘Nowruz’. Roya and Zari have very different personalities and ways of looking at life, and the two sisters often argue and clash. But there is a bond between them that is unbreakable. Have you experienced that simultaneous closeness and clashing with siblings in your life? What do you think it is about the sibling relationship in general and Roya and Zari’s sisterhood in particular that lends itself to such contradictions?”