Lion Women of Tehran

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives with her mother in genteel, anxious poverty, clinging to the memory of a grander life. Everything changes when she befriends Homa, a fearless, warm-hearted girl from a working-class family who dreams of becoming a lawyer and a champion for women's rights. The two become inseparable — "lion women," in Homa's phrase, brave and unbreakable — until a single betrayal tears them apart.

Spanning decades and continents, from the political ferment of mid-century Iran through revolution and exile to a reunion many years later in New York, the novel follows Ellie and Homa as their lives diverge and reconverge. Against a backdrop of coups, crackdowns, and the shrinking freedoms of Iranian women, their friendship endures as both wound and lifeline.

From the author of The Stationery Shop, Marjan Kamali's Lion Women of Tehran is a sweeping, emotionally rich novel about loyalty, guilt, class, and courage. It's a tribute to female friendship and to the women who refuse to be silenced, even when the cost of speaking is everything.