The Stationery Shop
Written by Marjan Kamali
Narrated by Mozhan Marno
4.5/5
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About this audiobook
Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.
Then 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—and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran.
A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square when violence erupts—a result of the coup d’etat that forever changes their country’s future. In the chaos, Bahman never shows. For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she moves on—to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England—until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How is it that you were able to forget me?
Marjan Kamali
Marjan Kamali has an MFA in creative writing from New York University and an MBA from Columbia University. Her work has been a top finalist in Glimmer Train's Fiction Open and the Asian American Short Story Contest. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and their two children.
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Reviews for The Stationery Shop
1,204 ratings79 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Five kitty read. I was so engaged with the characters that it just did not seem to span over 90 years of interactions from the oldest character to the youngest. The book is as much a love story as it is about human nature.
2 people found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book filled my heart with love and then broke it into a million pieces. The audiobook was so well read, it was a huge pleasure to listen to.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I couldn’t stop . I waited impatiently for work day to finish just to get back to it. And in the same time I was so sad ... disturbed by the fate of the characters as if they were real people I knew.
Ohhh ... so beautiful !1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Heartbreakingly beautiful. What a great love story! I wish the book were longer.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A beautiful story of young love that never dies.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I learned a lot about the customs, culture and history of Iran through the lives of the young lovers. It made for easier reading than a straight historical account of events.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not a light book or beach read, but truly enlightening and compassionate with fully realized characters. Loved it and learned much from it.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5* spoiler alert **
Okay, so, it was either 3 ⭐ or 1 ⭐
I'm not gonna write a review about the story, you're in goodreads, read the blurb.
However, I finished this book yesterday, and immediately rated it "which is a thing I don't do anymore because I keep thinking about the book I finish days later and will consequently have a better grip on my thoughts"
So, here's what happened.
Other than the fact that I kept getting angrier and angrier about the pure morbidity of the story, I came to the conclusion that it's one of those books that we're written to make you cry and scream at the unjustness of the world without actually giving you a beneficial moral to the story. I don't like reading these stories, I don't enjoy it, if a book dare leave me destroyed, it better teach me something about life that will help me keep moving, and not just mad and screaming at the book and the mentally ill woman in it.
I honestly want to 1 ⭐ it but if I want to be fair, it's a good book, though granted, not for me.1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Transports us to another time, in another place. Refreshing to be encased in a different culture and mannerisms.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a well written book. A love story set against the political backdrop of Iran during the 1950s and into 2013. History of that period, family, love, mental illness, youth and aging, along with wonderful descriptions of food. Makes me want to find some Persian recipes!! Twists and turn in the narrative… very good!!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A story that stays with u long after u finish. Traditions status boundaries control friendship love generation responsibility. it’s all here. Highly recommend.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Captivating. You could feel the joy and the pain of living throughout story.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The characters are well rounded and the story line interesting. I also enjoyed learning about the culture and history of iran. Very pleasant reading too
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mesmerizing and breathtaking. ‘It is love from which we can never recover.’
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wow. A beautifully written and wonderful story. I couldn’t stop crying throughout. Amazing job.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful, illuminating book… a well-written story with a gifted narrator!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Absolutely beautiful story. I fell in love with the characters.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lovely book. Slow at first, but picked up by the end. Definitely recommend it to fellow Rumi lovers.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5i hope this book will be made into a movie. it’s so beautifully written with characters you immediately fall in love with. this book was such an enjoyable read and i was crying by the end of it. i didn’t want this book and it’s universe to end. bravo to the author.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautifully written! I could not put this novel down. The plot and characters fully developed from different cultures, points of view, and political climate, spanning decades. It was like the slow, delicious simmering of the Persian recipes described. I never cry reading books, but I found myself connecting deeply with the love, loss and emotions expressed by the main characters. Well done!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Heartbreaking and yet beautifully written. I could not stop listening.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The narrator did justice to this beautiful book. The story started with a steady pace and then grips you deeper by every chapter. I was lost in the characters and the story, would definitely recommend giving this a try.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It liked that I got to learn more of the culture of the characters.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A really great story, I would definitely recommend it for everyone.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What a gorgeous layered love story, a political story, an immigrant story. I loved the writing, the language, the food!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautifully written and narrated. I thoroughly enjoyed this heartwarming and culturally educational novel.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This was riveting and so heartbreaking. A beautiful love story
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautifully written characters, an epic love story, full of sensory details that can make the reader feel they are there, in the stationery shop, in the streets of Tehran, or in the mother's fragrant Iranian kitchen.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Beautiful and captivating story and the narrator was top notch!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This book has made me cry and revisit old live stories of mine !