This is, at heart, a bittersweet love story. It has the hint of historical fiction around it, but the book is much more interested in what happens to people than in explaining history itself. I enjoyed it a lot, particularly the sections set in Tehran.
Plot in a Nutshell
We first meet Roya in Tehran in 1953, just as she is finishing school. Educated and bookish she is already grappling with her father’s hope she becomes a scientist versus her love of poetry and books. She spends as much time as she can in a beautiful stationery shop where she buys imported paper, reads poetry and escapes into books.
In this shop she sees Bahman, a politically passionate young man coming to the shop, initially to collect and share political pamphlets but later to be with Roya. Their relationship unfolds against a tense summer in Iranian history, as support for the Prime Minister, distrust of the Shah and growing political sows seeds of distrust and ever more violent protests.
From the beginning, though, we know that this is not going to be a straightforward love story. Another timeline shows Roya much later in life, living in America, and eventually meeting Bahman again after decades apart. The novel becomes less about their happy ever after and more about why it did not happen.
Thoughts
The strongest part of the book for me was Tehran, and specifically Tehran at the precipice of change. Kamali creates a vivid sense of a city changing around her characters without ever turning the novel into a history lesson. Roya and Bahman go for coffee, see films together, dance the tango at a friend’s house and move through their world in a way their parents and grandparents could not. This is also carefully balanced with a strong respect for family and traditions which I enjoyed the pairing of.
At the same time, there is a constant political tension underneath everything. The whole summer gradually begins to feel combustible. Kamali doesn’t really stop to explain this, as a reader you get to know what Roya understands from her father, Bahman and increasingly her own experiences as the fear of spies deepen and protests become more dangerous.
I thought the way the political disappointment of Bahman and Roya’s own father mirrored the collapse of Roya and Bahman’s relationship worked particularly well. As the city tips into violence and the Prime Minister is overthrown, Roya’s own expectations for her future are falling apart too. The loss of hope exists in both.
I also loved the Persian cultural detail threaded through the book. Persian New Year, ideas around cleansing and renewal, cooking and family rituals all give the novel an extra dimension beyond just romance.
The food is worth a mention, reading this had me hungry! Roya cooks with her mother at a moment when she believes she is about to marry Bahman. Years later, those same foods and recipes become part of the life she builds with Walter in America, and eventually a way of connecting with Claire. I liked this sense of Roya holding on to her Iranian identify and using it to build connections, where she otherwise struggled.
The shift to America absolutely makes sense for the story, and I liked that Roya is allowed to have a full life after Bahman. Her marriage to Walter matters. He is not treated as a consolation prize or a blocker to her “real” love. Roya loves him, and he her. They build a worthwhile life together. I appreciated that Walter was part of the ending helping Roya and Bahman eventually gain a level of closure. It was good to understand the forces that kept them apart, but the novel does not undo everything that came afterwards to manufacture a romantic happy ending.
Still, the American sections felt less satisfying. Tehran has atmosphere, heat, tension and movement. Boston and Massachusetts are mostly painted through cold and snow and their time on the West Coast is equally thin.
I struggled a little with all of the main characters. They never seem fully formed in their own right, rather they reflect of each other. We know more about Walter through Roya than we know Walter himself for example. I like an epistolary novel and the letters sprinkled throughout the book are a place where characters own voices shine through. Here though, I was not a huge fan of them. They seemed a little too convenient and a way to fill in the gaps of time and plot rather than driving it forward.
I did however really enjoy the secondary characters. Zari, Roya’s impatient, loyal and cheeky sister could happily have had more page time. It was good that once the sisters were separated, we continue to hear her voice as Roya talks to herself. It’s as if the imagined Zari keeps Roya connected to who she herself was.
Mr Fakhri, the owner of the stationery shop is also complex. Through flashbacks and later letters, we learn more about his history and some of his actions. He is, in both timelines critical for driving the action forward.
There is a full circle ending that was both satisfying and a little cheesy. Closure is rarely so neat. But it did work here and I enjoyed a final chance to see a little more of Tehran again.
A Final Note
There is something in this one that reminded me of House of Doors by Tan Twen Eng. I think it is that the sense of time and place are so important in both. However niether turn into a history lesson.