Zari is a secondary character and we see her as the complete opposite of her sister.

There must be something about her personality that prevents her from feeling fully. We all have a first love that lives in our memory but most of us can move on. I also felt sorry for Roya because she could not get over her first love. His wife could not show herself fully to him no matter how long they were married. It's too bad that this part of their culture did not transplant well in the U. The closeness of the families in the novel is also heartwarming. It makes me want to visit an Iranian restaurant near my home and I probably will go there on the weekend. Khanom prepared the Iranian traditional foods. Most of their traditions, and especially food, charm me. Sixty years after moving to America, Roya finds Bahman in a nursing home nearby her home where both of them meet and learn what ultimately happened earlier in their lives. Roya and Walter marry and move to Boston so that Walter can attend law school. In her grief Roya moves to California with her sister to attend college. She tries for several weeks to contact him but is not successful. In the packed crowd Roya does not see Bahman. A few months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square where violence erupts as a result of a coup d'erat that gives the Shah all of the power. Their romance blossoms under the watchful eye of Mr. Bahman Aslan catches Roya's heart even before they are introduced. One day a cute boy comes in and is given a stack of papers to deliver by Mr. There she finds pens, paper and Persian poetry books and she visits the shop every Tuesday afternoon when school is over. Roya is not interested in politics and finds a literary oasis in the neighborhood stationery shop owned by Mr. There is plenty of political upheaval as the Shah and the National Front fight for supremacy. Roya is a dreamy, idealistic seventeen-year-old living in 1953 Tehran. Roya is the heroine of the book and her story concentrates on the lost love of her first boyfriend, Bahman Aslan. They are quite different in their outlook on life. The Khanom sisters, Roya and Zari, are coming of age in Tehran. The Stationery Shop is a sweet story that takes place in Tehran, California and Boston.

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali