Marjan Kamali's gorgeous, gripping third novel, The Lion Women of Tehran, paints a layered portrait of female friendship, unexpected cultural shifts, and second chances. In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie is devastated and blindsided by her father's death, which forces Ellie and her mother to move to a smaller house across town. Although Ellie's mother, mired in her grief and pride, hardly leaves the house, Ellie longs to make friends. On the first day of her new school, she meets Homa, a confident, bubbly local girl, and they become fast friends, spending hours together and dreaming of their futures, when they will become "lion women": bold, courageous, and successful.
Despite Ellie's mother's criticism of the "lower types," the girls' friendship flourishes, until Ellie and her mother make another unexpected move. Growing into a popular teenager, Ellie nearly forgets about Homa, until the day her former best friend appears at Ellie's posh high school. Although initially torn between her concern for appearances and her deep bond with Homa, Ellie soon rekindles their friendship. Side by side, they grow into young adults.
Kamali (The Stationery Shop, Together Tea) sensitively portrays the complex bond between Ellie and Homa: two young women of differing social classes, temperaments, and ambitions. Kamali provides a nuanced look at the experiences of young women under the Shah's regime through their social circle. They adore each other, and Ellie secretly envies Homa's confidence and her supportive parents, but they struggle to understand one another's decisions. Although Ellie is intelligent, she becomes mainly preoccupied with finding a husband during their university years, while Homa, always politically active, insists she will never marry. As the political landscape in Iran shifts rapidly, Ellie worries for Homa and her radical ideas, but neither of them can imagine how the country's political climate will shape the rest of their lives.
Narrated mostly by Ellie, The Lion Women of Tehran takes readers from the streets of Tehran to 1970s Manhattan, where Ellie and her husband eventually make their home. Homa narrates several brief sections where what's left unsaid is as powerful as what's spelled out. Ellie's years in New York capture the challenges of the Muslim-American immigrant experience and the push-pull of exile from a volatile place; Kamali also deftly explores the subtleties of Ellie's fraught but close-knit relationship with her mother. Ellie and Homa's eventual reunion is as complicated and beautiful as their friendship itself; Kamali is unwilling to give her characters the easy way out, but their stories, despite the pain, always bend toward hope.
Insightful, compassionate, and grounded in historical detail, The Lion Women of Tehran is an evocation of a country upended and a tribute to the ways deep friendships shape our lives. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams
Shelf Talker: Marjan Kamali's evocative third novel portrays a deep, complex female friendship against the backdrop of political turmoil in Iran.