Marjan Kamaliová

From the author of The Stationery Shop of Tehran, a heartfelt, epic new novel of friendship, betrayal and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran. In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing the brunt of her mother's endless grievances, Ellie dreams of a friend to alleviate her isolation. Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa's warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming 'lion women.' But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls' high school in Iran, Ellie's memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie's privileged world alters the course of both of their lives. Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering betrayal will have enormous consequences.

If you read The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul and enjoyed The Beekeeper of Aleppo, you will love The Stationery Shop of Tehran 1953, Tehran. In a small shop in a country on the brink of unrest, two people meet for the very first time. Roya loves nothing better than to while away the hours in the stationery shop run by Mr Fakhri. The store, stocked with fountain pens, shiny ink bottles, and thick wads of writing paper, also carries translations of literature from all over the world. Bahman, with his burning passion for justice, is like no one else she has ever met. But all around them, as their relationship blossoms, life in Tehran is changing. Suddenly, shockingly, violence erupts: a coup d'etat that forever changes their country's future, as well as their own. Marjan Kamali's beautiful novel explores themes of love and loss, and delivers an unforgettable ending.

Na dvadsiate piate narodeniny nájde Darja pre svoju dcéru dokonalý darček – ideálneho manžela. Mína je však otrávená matkiným dohadzovaním a známkovaním vhodných iránsko-amerických starých mládencov. Po Darjinom poslednom nešťastnom pokuse nájsť Míne manžela sa matka s dcérou vydajú na cestu do Iránu, kde k sebe začínajú nachádzať cestu. Má však ich vzájomné porozumenie šancu prežiť po tom, ako sa Mína zaľúbi do mladého muža, ktorý nespĺňa matkine prísne kritériá? A keď sa na obzore objaví americký hudobník a nečakane zamotá hlavu Darji, situácia sa celkom skomplikuje. Spoločný čaj je vtipný a inteligentný príbeh, vďaka ktorému si vychutnáte ponor do perzského sveta z pohľadu Newyorčanky.