The Stationery Shop of Tehran

Compare the characterization of Bahman and Walter in the novel, and Roya’s relationship with each. What do these relationships suggest about the nature of love and marriage?

Consider the concept of “forehead-written fate” in the novel. What are the roles of fate and agency in the novel? In what ways do the characters control their own lives, and in what ways are they impacted by external forces?

August 19, 1953, is a pivotal and tragic date both in the political history of Iran and in the personal love story between Roya and Bahman. How does Kamali depict the interplay between the personal and the political in the novel more generally?

Analyze the experience of time in the novel. In what forms do linear time and cyclical time appear in the text? What is the role and influence of each in the novel’s narrative structure and/or their thematic significance?

Setting plays an important role in the novel. How are Iran and America depicted in the novel? In what ways are these settings different or similar? What is the wider significance of each in the text?

Various forms of communication exist in the novel: books, letters, social media. How do different forms of communication shape the narrative and reflect the novel’s key themes and ideas?

How are familial ties and notions of identity depicted in the text? In what ways, if any, do the characters’ sense of identity change? In what ways do they remain the same?

How do social constraints related to class, gender, and/or ethnicity affect the lives of the characters in the novel? How do different characters conform to, or defy, these constraints?