Author: Marjan Kamali

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. There she meets Bahman, with his burning passion for justice, 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'état that forever changes their country's future, as well as their own. On the eve of their marriage, Bahman and Roya agree to meet at the town square when violence erupts—a result of the coup that changes Iran forever. In the chaos, Bahman never shows.

For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she moves on—to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England—until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did you leave? Where did you go? How is it that you were able to forget me?

• ISBN-13: 978-1982107482
• Pages: 320
• Language: English
• Dimensions: 13.2 x 2 x 20.3 cm
• Weight: 0.280 kg