The Stationery Shop of Tehran
| Published | 2019-06-18 |
| Series | Standalone |
| Genre | Historical Fiction, Romance |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Gallery Books |
| ISBN-10 | 1982121401 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1982121402 |
📝Honest Review
Roya is seventeen years old and in love with a boy named Bahman who she meets at the stationery shop of the title. They spend their time in this small book and paper filled shop reading poetry and falling for each other. Then the coup happens and everything goes wrong in a way that takes sixty years to fully understand. The novel moves between 1953 Tehran and modern day Massachusetts and Kamali handles both timelines with total confidence. I cared about Roya at every age she appears in the book and that is not an easy thing to pull off.
There is a letter at the centre of this book that changes everything. When you find out what really happened to it i promise you will need to put the book down for a minute. My reaction reading this for the first time on a Saturday afternoon was deeply personal. This is a book about what history does to ordinary people. Not the people who make decisions in rooms. The people who are just trying to be young and fall in love and get on with things when the world will not let them. What nobody can reasonably complain about is the writing. Kamali writes clear, warm prose that moves quickly once the story gets going. There is no showing off. No long passages that feel like they are waiting for you to admire them. Just a story told very well by someone who clearly cared deeply about getting it right.
Summary:
I picked up this book on a recommendation from someone whose taste i trust and i am so glad i did. I had heard of it before but somehow kept putting it off and then one Saturday afternoon i sat down with it and did not really move until i was done. It is the kind of book that you finish and then feel a bit hollow for a day or two because the characters were so real to you and now they are gone.
✅ What I Liked
The stationery shop itself is perfect. The shop where Roya and Bahman meet is a real character in the book. It is owned by a man called Mr Fakhri who sells paper and pens and books and who quietly influences both young people. The history is real and it matters; the political chaos is not a backdrop, it is the reason everything falls apart. Roya at every age is someone you believe in; the older Roya carries her past in a specific way that feels true. Finally, the twist with the letter is genuinely affecting; the sadness of it is not melodramatic, it is quiet and specific and that is what makes it land so hard.
❌ What Could Be Better
The pacing in the first third is slow. Kamali takes her time building Tehran and building Roya and Bahman's relationship and if you are the kind of reader who needs something to happen fast you might find the early chapters frustrating. Also, the romance itself is idealistic in a way that some readers find a bit much. Roya and Bahman's love in those early chapters is quite pure and uncomplicated and if you prefer your fictional relationships messy and difficult from the start this one might feel a bit fairytale in the setup.
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