Kamali’s novel starts in 1953 Iran, and moves back in time to 1912, as well as forward to 2013 in America, and through this triplet of time periods, it tells a story of love, heart, and struggle. Bahman, who comes from a stable background, is a politically driven young kid who is deeply loyal and hopeful with Iran’s 1953 prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh. Roya, and her younger sister Zari, on the other hand, come from a mediocre family, but with high ambitions in life. Thanks to their father, who is also a loyal supporter of the prime minister in hopes that he will bring democracy in Persia or Iran, both Roy and Zari are well educated, sharp, and resilient girls.
Then, there’s Mr. Fakhri, the owner of the Stationary Shop filled with translated works of international literature and poetry of the great Rumi. It is here that on one Tuesday Roya and Bahman cross paths and in the subsequent weeks they fall in love. On the outside of the shop, however, things do not look so promising politically. Pressure is building up on the prime minister as rumors of potential coup against him rise.
A young and promising love on one hand and the unpromising political instability on the other, this is how Kamali’s novel starts, but what follows is the iceberg beneath the ocean surface. So masterful is Kamali’s craft of this novel with its interconnected relationships across different time periods, and so intricately and perfectly are these relations placed and told, that towards the end of the novel an avalanche of goosebumps starts following through the reader's body, as one layer after another is pealed and revealed.
While the title of the book as well as the premise of it might not sound like a promisingly literary fiction, as it was the case for me, it is while reading through the pages that one gets to know the masterful plot that's building up in the background, which towards the end, comes forth in all its glory and emotions. Kamali’s novel, because of her brilliant crafting of the plot and neatly knitting of the story, has one of the best endings I have ever read in a work of fiction.
As the hair on my skin kept erecting, and my gasps started to get more intense, and as I sat up from reclining position, while reading the ending of this novel, I was powerfully reminded of reading Khaled Hosseini’s novels and especially their endings. Much like Hosseini, Kamali too, succeeds in intensely surprising the readers by connecting the dots that she herself placed during the novel. It is just amazing.
Yet the ending wouldn’t have been so emphatic without a beautifully and engrossingly told story. In this single novel, one could relive the chaotic days of 1950s Iran, and get a slight taste of the old 1912s Iran; here one could read a heartbreaking, honest, yet fulfilling love story, yet one that is supported by another equally as heartbreaking love-tale of the past; also here, one can feel the many sacrifices that makes possible a single love, and the relentless courage to pursue it; it, too, is a novel of a sweet family life, of bonding sisters, that struggles and perseveres hardships on the hopes of a better future, and then achieves it… there’s also culture, cooking, and cuisine; homesickness and living in a foreign place; motherhood and the joys that babies bring… and so much more.
Although by now I’m gushing over this novel, probably because I’ve just finished reading it, but I’m also well aware of the impact this novel will leave on me, and how its story will live on in my memory. Kamali’s novel is a neat and beautiful work of fiction of an otherwise emotionally and timely overwhelming story; a novel that achieves the true essence of love and heartbreak.
Ratings: 5/5 ***** March 15, 2021_