Book Log 2021 #40: The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

A teenaged girl in 1950s Tehran finds refuge from the growing political turmoil in a stationery shop, falling in love with smells and sights of its pens, inks, and papers. The shopkeeper, sensing a kindrid spirit, introduces her to a boy with similar interests. The two fall in love and plan to get married.

But on the night they are supposed to meet in a town square, a coup is launched against the government. The girl manages to get to the square, but the boy never shows. What happened to him remains a mystery - until a chance encounter sixty years later gives her a chance to ask him where he went, and if he didn't show becuase of her, or something else?

The political unrest and coup are based on the actual 1953 coup (engineered by the US and UK) that toppled the elected government of Mohammed Mosaddegh due to concerns over communist leanings (fueled by his nationalization of the Iranian oil industry). For their trouble, the West got the increasingly repressive Shah of Iran and the 1979 Islamic revolution. So well done, CIA and MI6!

I don't remember much of anything about the actual story here, but it was probably fine. I did finish this book very quickly, so it was either so engrossing I couldn't put it down or it was easy enough to zip through. Maybe a bit of both?