Review of ‘The Stationery Shop of Tehran’

This was one of my last books of 2020...

The Stationery Shop of Tehran, written by Marjan Kamali is a cute love story between Roya and Bahman (teenagers) who meet in a quaint stationery shop in Tehran in the 1950s. The shop stocks classical books as well such as #Rumi - Roya’s favourite. She’s a bookworm and Bahman, a political activist. He is described as “the boy who would change the world”. They fall in love among the bookshelves. But sadly things don’t work out to plan.

The best parts of this book for me are the descriptions of life in Iran and the cultural practices - which are very similar to my own Indo-Pakistani ones. For example the “Persian tarof- that ritual of constant back-and-forth offering and refusal, often buttressed with flowery language and exaggerated flattery” in the context of entertaining - is the equivalent of the Urdu ‘takalluf’ which means to be ceremonious and go out of your way to accommodate a guest.

The description of Iranian food is also very tantalising, you can almost smell the delicacies floating off the pages, “The saffron mixed with water is like liquid gold”, the jujeh kebab chicken and khoresh-e-bademjan(eggplant stew)...

If you are in the mood to be transported to a vibrant culture and to evoke your senses and emotions, which may bring along a few tears - this is the book for you!