The Stationery Shop of Tehran

Bahman begins the novel as a fearless young idealist, set to “change the world” (20) and absolute in his love for Roya and his devotion to Mossadegh. The coup and his apparent desertion by Roya leave him utterly disillusioned with politics and pessimistic about life in general.

Despite his disillusionment, Bahman remains humane and loving toward others. Although he guesses that his mother was responsible for tampering with his letters, Bahman remains compassionate and caring toward her. He empathizes with her pain and recognizes its origins, despite the terrible damage she has done to his life. Although he was tricked and coerced into marrying Shahla, Bahman appears to have been an affectionate, supportive husband and is clearly bereft when he speaks of her death. Like Roya, he finds solace and new life in family and parenthood, while maintaining his love for Roya throughout his life.

Bahman also emigrates to America and his founding of the Stationery Shop reflects his commitment to The Nature of Memory and Loss, as he attempts to recreate a part of his youth in his new homeland. The fact that Bahman’s Stationery Shop ultimately brings Roya back into his life, just as the original Stationery Shop facilitated their original meeting, is highly significant, reinforcing the symbolism of the Stationery Shop in the novel (See: Symbols & Motifs). His reunion with Roya brings closure to their love story, giving a bittersweet ending to The Experience of Love and Marriage that both have had.

The first time Roya sees Walter, he reminds her of Tintin, a clean-cut Belgian comic book character who is often found in “exotic” locations inhabited by stereotypical caricatures of foreigners. Rather like the café in which they meet, she initially finds him two-dimensional and a little too perfect.

However, Walter is exceptionally kind and empathetic, taking a genuine interest in his wife’s culture, putting Roya’s needs before his own after the loss of their daughter, and even driving Roya to see Bahman because he cannot bear to see her unhappy. Although Roya is initially drawn to him because he represents a sensible stability that stands in stark contrast to her dangerous, passionate romance with Bahman, Roya comes to love and profoundly respect her husband. Her strong marriage to Walter adds nuance to The Experience of Love and Marriage in the novel, suggesting that her different loves with Walter and Bahman were both meaningful and worthwhile.

Mrs. Aslan’s early experience of poverty, coupled with the profound trauma of losing a series of babies as a consequence of having performed an abortion on herself as a teenager, have left her with a ruthless determination to advance socially at all costs and a very bitter, jealous worldview. Unlike Roya, who finds a way to redeem and overcome loss through memory and enduring love, Mrs. Aslan is permanently embittered by her experiences.

Mrs. Aslan’s failed relationship with Mr. Fakhri helps to drive the main conflict in the first half of the novel, as Mrs. Aslan decides to sabotage the relationship between Roya and her son. Her husband’s encouragement to take up calligraphy gives her the idea of tampering with the lovers’ correspondence, and she is able to enlist Mr. Fakhri’s help in doing so as he feels guilty for his youthful abandonment of her. Her attempted death by suicide in Mr. Fakhri’s Stationery Shop leads to the family’s removal to the North, setting her plan for sabotage in motion and leading to the final separation between Roya and Bahman. Although she is responsible for the relationship failing, Bahman does not resent her for it, understanding that her traumas played a role in how she behaved.

Mr. Fakhri had a youthful affair with Badri (later known as Mrs. Aslan), which was doomed due to their differences in social class: While Mr. Fakhri was of a higher social class, Badri was poor and illiterate. His family thus successfully pressured Mr. Fakhri into marrying a bride of their own choosing. Mr. Fakhri opens his Stationery Shop after his marriage, hoping to inspire and facilitate the kind of emotional and intellectual freedom that he himself was denied. He even assists young lovers by passing messages for them. When Badri one day appears in his shop with her son, Bahman, Mr. Fakhri feels protective and kindly toward the boy and vows to do what he can do him, partially out of guilt for how he treated Badri. 

However, his enduring sense of guilt at the terrible consequences his actions have had on Badri leads him to collaborate with her in falsifying the letters between Roya and Bahman. On the day of the coup, he undergoes a change of heart and rushes to the square where Roya is, wishing to tell her the truth. He is shot before he has the chance to explain, and as he dies, he watches the Stationery Shop burn. The novel’s Epilogue is told from his point of view as he lies dying, with Mr. Fakhri reflecting on his regrets while also reassuring himself that the ideals and freedoms the Stationery Shop represented will live on even if the shop itself is destroyed.