The Stationery Shop of Tehran

The chapter contains three letters to Roya from Bahman, charting and commenting on the key historical developments in Iran over the period. The first discusses the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini and his children’s optimism that, if Khomeini replaces the Shah, all will be well in Iran. The second is written shortly after the Islamic Revolution and the Shah’s deposition. Bahman is skeptical that the outcome of the revolution will be positive and comments ironically on America's refusal to grant the Shah political asylum. The third letter is written during the Iran-Iraq War. Jahangir has been killed and the country is being bombed beyond all recognition.

Zari Facetimes Roya. Roya is somewhat bemused at their strangely distorted faces onscreen but is delighted and grateful to see her younger sister, who is now a grandmother.

Contrary to the warning of Mrs. Aslan many years ago, Roya has come to the conclusion that babies do not really die. Although many decades have passed since Marigold’s death, she carries her daughter with her all the time. She now also has a son, Kyle, born after a surprise pregnancy when she was 42. Motherhood has enabled her to “let the world in“ once again (241). She left her secretarial job to raise her son, who is now a doctor.

Roya goes to a large stationery store to buy a paper shredder for Walter. When she grumbles to Walter about the size of the store and the disinterest of its teenage employees, an elderly cashier sympathizes and mentions a charming, old-fashioned, family-run store in Newton.

The next week, Roya has a chance to visit the store for herself while she waits for Walter to finish a podiatrist’s appointment. When she goes inside, she is instantly transported back to Mr. Fakhri’s shop in Tehran. When a young man bearing a striking resemblance to Bahman asks if she requires assistance, Roya feels faint and has to sit down. She spots books of poetry by Rumi and asks the young man about them. He says that they are one of the many things his father insisted on when they were setting up the shop. When Roya asks his father’s name, the shopkeeper tells her it is “Bahman Aslan.”

Roya learns from Bahman’s son, Omid, that he is living In the Duxton Senior Center.

When she gets home, she rushes upstairs to the bathroom and googles the center, recalling Zari’s perplexity that she has never looked up Bahman online. Over the next week, Roya frequently finds herself crying for no apparent reason. Eventually, she calls the center and makes an appointment to see Mr. Aslan. Walter immediately agrees to drive her there. The chapter ends with the same scene that concludes the book’s opening chapter: Claire accompanies Roya into the hall where Bahman sits in a wheelchair by the window.

The dialogue from the first chapter continues with Bahman’s statement that he has been waiting and Roya’s angry question. Bahman has looked up Roya on Google and knows about her husband and son. They joke that, until his death, Jahangir was their “Worldwide Web,“ keeping them up to date with each other’s movements. He reveals that he has Parkinson’s disease and that Shahla has died of pancreatic cancer. When Roya repeatedly declares that she forgives him, Bahman is confused. He describes his own long wait on the square, and Roya becomes convinced that he must have dementia. Bahman realizes that they were waiting on two different squares and guesses that someone must have tampered with their letters. He wonders whether it was his mother, Jahangir (who was in love with him), or Mr. Fakhri. Roya leaves, convinced that Bahman’s perception has broken from reality.

A letter from Bahman arrives at Roya’s house, in which he finally discloses what happened in the days immediately preceding and following their scheduled meeting on the square. He recalls how his father encouraged his mother to study calligraphy to soothe her nerves. After their engagement party, Mrs. Aslan stormed out of the house. When he followed her, he found her in Mr. Fakhri’s shop, holding a butcher’s knife. She plunged the knife into her throat and told him, as he sought to tend to her, that she lost four children before him. The first child was Mr. Fakhri’s and died in a botched, self-induced abortion when she was just a teenager. She attributed the loss of the others to the after-effects of this procedure.

They took Mrs. Aslan to Jahangir’s father. She was not seriously hurt, but the family retreated to their villa in the North in part to avoid the stigma surrounding attempted death by suicide. Bahman trusted Jahangir to keep Roya up-to-date, although he was aware that his friend was in love with him and had a conflict of interest.

Bahman believes that Mr. Fakhri, out of a sense of duty to his mother, was the one who tampered with their correspondence. He recalls Roya's preoccupation with the “evil eye“ and ponders retrospectively whether there was some truth in the notion.

Bahman reflects on how he was supposed to have “changed the world“ and how soon his political engagement and ambition faded. He suggests that Jahangir, who became a doctor and died on the front during the Iran-Iraq War, ultimately made more of a change than he ever did. He finds the modern world “ugly” and cruel, redeemed only by his children and grandchildren and by the memory of their love.

Roya rushes to the center. Claire tells her that Bahman has taken a turn for the worse. She accompanies her to Bahman’s room and leaves them together. They both confess how their love has endured, how often the first person they have each thought of upon waking up was the other. Roya climbs into bed next to Bahman and they embrace, reliving their moments together in the Stationery Shop and dancing the tango at Jahangir’s house. She reflects that in a ”parallel universe“ they have spent their lives together.

Bahman dies later that day, and Claire persuades Roya to attend his funeral. She is impressed by his son and daughter and reflects that, in bringing them into the world and raising them, Bahman did change the world after all (291). At the reception, “elephant ear“ pastries are served. Claire gives Roya a lift home and Roya invites her in. Claire gives Roya a round blue tin box containing all of her letters to Bahman, including the last, fake text. It also contains all of Bahman’s later letters to her, which were never posted. Roya observes how lonely Claire is. She invites her to prepare a traditional Persian meal together. When Walter arrives home, Kyle also turns up for a surprise visit.

Alone, later, Roya looks forward to spring coming around again. She thinks about her dead daughter and living son, all her friends and family and her homeland. She is overwhelmed with “love for [Bahman] and for Walter and for all those who had gone and for those who remained” (300).

The Epilogue is narrated from the perspective of Mr. Fakhri. The setting returns to Tehran, on the day of the 1953 coup. Despite his marriage and children, Ali has never got over his love for Badri, and she is a constant presence in his mind. He has created the Stationery Shop, with its selection of international literature, to help young people escape the life of stagnation, frustration, and restraint in which he has found himself. Roya and Bahman are not the only couple he has helped. He has also passed love letters between other pairs of lovers whose relationships were prohibited by their families and social circles.

At Badri’s request, he has rewritten Bahman’s letter, changing only the name of the square. He debates with himself whether he should go ahead with the deception to save Badri’s life, or whether his own jealousy has also been a factor in his compliance. Concluding that what he has done is wrong he closes the shop and hurries to Sepah Square.

After he is shot, Mr., Fakhri longs for a chance to explain everything to Roya and to set things right, to apologize to her, to Bahman, and to Badri. He thinks he can see smoke coming from his shop, but is convinced this is not the case. He believes his shop, with all it stands for, will continue after he is gone.