AMS Book Club - June

Join us for June Book Club - New members always welcome!

The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Tuesday, June 23, 8pm

Host: Cecilia D's home (NE Rochester) or over Zoom for those who prefer, email

sharontjoyce@gmail.com for information.

From nationally bestselling author Marjan Kamali, this perfect book club read is

“evocative...and a powerful portrait of friendship, feminism, and political activism” (People)

set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran.

In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her

father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Lonely and bearing

the brunt of her mother’s endless grievances, Ellie dreams for a friend to alleviate her

isolation.

Luckily, on the first day of school, she meets Homa, a kind girl with a brave and

irrepressible spirit. Together, the two girls play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of

Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their

ambitions of becoming “lion women.”

But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to

return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in

Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden

reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.

Together, the two young women come of age and pursue their own goals for meaningful

futures. But as the political turmoil in Iran builds to a breaking point, one earth-shattering

betrayal will have enormous consequences.

“Reminiscent of The Kite Runner and My Brilliant Friend, The Lion Women of Tehran is a

mesmerizing tale” (BookPage) of love and courage, and a sweeping exploration of how

profoundly we are shaped by those we meet when we are young.