In The Lion Women of Tehran, the latest book by bestselling author Marjan Kamali, two girls named Ellie and Homa share the joys of childhood, weather the ups and downs of adolescence, and go off to university together. But their friendship is ruptured when one of them betrays the other, until decades later they reconnect in America.
Author Marjan Kamali was born in Turkey to Iranian parents, and lived in Iran for a few years as a child. She now lives in Lexington. LexObserver caught up with Kamali to ask a few questions about the book and how it relates to her own experiences.
LexObserver: Tell us about the inspiration for this story.
Marjan Kamali: After my second book, The Stationery Shop, came out, I had started writing the next one when the pandemic began. As I scrolled Instagram during lockdown, I saw posts from a woman in Iran who was my friend — not just on social media, but once upon a time in real life. We had been best friends in elementary school in Tehran: playing together, doing homework, and sharing dreams and hopes about the kind of women we would one day become. As I looked at my friend’s p`osts and saw her ‘liking’ mine, I wondered again about the different directions our lives had taken. Here I was, an author in America, and there she was working at a human rights organization in Iran. I couldn’t stop thinking about how the friends we make when we are young shape us. Their influence lasts even if the friendship doesn’t. And friendship breakups are just as heart-wrenching as romantic ones. I knew I had to write the story of a broken friendship. So, I started writing The Lion Women of Tehran.
LexObserver: How much of The Lion Women of Tehran is based on your own life?
Marjan Kamali: This story of friendship takes place in the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. It is not based on my own life as I wasn’t alive for much of that time period, and I made up the characters of Ellie and Homa. However, of course I drew on a lot of my own emotional experiences. I know what it is like to take comfort in and have the great privilege of having a good friend. I also know what it is like to have that friendship ruptured. So, while I made up the characters of Ellie and Homa, a lot of their emotional dynamic is based on what I know to be true about the joys and challenges of friendship.
LexObserver: Can you talk a bit more about the time you spent in Tehran as a child?
Marjan Kamali: I only lived in Tehran between the ages of two and five and again between the ages of nine and ten and a half. I wasn’t there very long, but I did live there during a very pivotal time in its history: right after the 1979 revolution and during the first year and a half of the 8-year Iran-Iraq war. I spent many nights in the basement as bombs fell outside. A great escape was reading my mom’s old paperbacks. I became aware of the power authors had to transport me to a different time and place. I was in awe of their superpower and wanted to have that superpower myself.
LexObserver: Your family fled Iran and came to New York after the Revolution. How did your life diverge from your friend’s life after you left in real life? Without giving too much away, how is this reflected in the story?
Marjan Kamali: When my family left Tehran — in a rush and without saying goodbye to my best friend — I arrived in New York at the age of ten knowing I had to live doubly hard for both of us. My friend and I wrote letters on aerograms when I first moved (I still have them!) and kept in touch that way. But, after a while, we stopped writing and lost contact. I became an American, but I still thought (and think) about my friend in Iran. In The Lion Women of Tehran, Ellie moves on to a life in America, but still thinks about her friend, Homa, in Iran. There are certain parallels, but Ellie and Homa’s story is uniquely their own!
LexObserver: Tell us about the title — what do you mean by “lion women”?
Marjan Kamali: The phrase “lion women” is literally translated from the Persian phrase “shir zan.” I grew up hearing this phrase and found it very empowering. It refers to women who are fierce, brave, and unstoppable. There are many lion women in my extended family and I have always been inspired by them.
LexObserver: What message do you hope readers take away from the book?
Marjan Kamali: E.L. Doctorow said that the power of fiction is that it helps us understand not just what happened in history, but also how what happened made people feel. By creating the characters of Ellie and Homa, I hope to show the vibrancy and courage of two girls from Iran who I made up but who are very real to me. It is through story (both the reading and the writing of it) that so many of us find solace, refuge, hope, and understanding. I hope in my characters’ hopes, you see some of yours. I hope from their tale, you sense that all our hearts are one.
You can hear more at one of these upcoming events in the Boston area:
AUG 7, 2024 Cohasset, MA / Cohasset Lightkeepers / In Person / Festival/Literary Series / Ticketed event; with J. Courtney Sullivan and Dawn Tripp / LINK
AUG 8, 2024 Cambridge, MA / Harvard Book Store / In Person / Book Store / LINK
AUG 13, 2024 South Hadley, MA / Odyssey Bookshop / In Person / Book Store / LINK
SEP 14, 2024 Chestnut Hill, MA / Hummingbird Books / In Person / Book Store / Local author fair / LINK
SEP 17, 2024 Lexington, MA / Lexington Community Center / In Person / Library / Cary Library Literary Café; in conversation with Cary Memorial Library Foundation Board Member Kimberly Hensle Lowrance / LINK
OCT 9, 2024 Winchester, MA / Book Ends / In Person / Book Store / LINK / In Person / Book Store
I read the book because my book club chose it. I am so glad I did; is absolutely wonderful. We have never been to Iran, but we have been to Turkey many times and I found many of the descriptions to be familiar. Thank you so much for writing such a wonderful book.