A poignant, heartfelt new novel by the award-nominated author of Together Tea\u2014extolled by the Wall Street Journal as a \u201cmoving tale of lost love\u201d and by Shelf Awareness as \u201ca powerful, heartbreaking story\u201d\u2014explores loss, reconciliation, and the quirks of fate.<\/p>\n
Roya, a dreamy, idealistic teenager living amid the political upheaval of 1953 Tehran, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri\u2019s neighborhood stationery shop, stocked with books and pens and bottles of jewel-colored ink.<\/p>\n
Then Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer\u2014handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi\u2019s poetry\u2014and she loses her heart at once. Their romance blossoms, and the little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran.<\/p>\n
A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square when violence erupts\u2014a result of the coup d\u2019etat that forever changes their country\u2019s future. 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\u2014to college in California, to another man, to a life in New England\u2014until, 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?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marjan Kamali<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":83375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[2585,1937,2241,1943,2431,1947],"product_tag":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-83407","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-book-club","7":"product_cat-fiction","8":"product_cat-historical","9":"product_cat-historical-fiction","10":"product_cat-iran","11":"product_cat-romance","12":"desktop-align-left","13":"tablet-align-left","14":"mobile-align-left","16":"first","17":"instock","18":"featured","19":"sold-individually","20":"shipping-taxable","21":"purchasable","22":"product-type-simple"},"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6.png",1890,2363,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-240x300.png",240,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-768x960.png",768,960,true],"large":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-819x1024.png",819,1024,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-1229x1536.png",1229,1536,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-1638x2048.png",1638,2048,true],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-10x12.png",10,12,true],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-300x300.png",300,300,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-600x750.png",600,750,true],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-100x100.png",100,100,true],"dgwt-wcas-product-suggestion":["https:\/\/book-berries.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/RomNCE-6-64x80.png",64,80,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"bookberrieslb@gmail.com","author_link":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/author\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Marjan Kamali","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/83407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=83407"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=83407"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/book-berries.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=83407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}