THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN

As heart-wrenching as it is achingly beautiful'' Sadeqa Johnson author of The House of Eve ''Heartbreaking and life affirming'' Adrienne Brodeur author of Little Monsters ''Courage friendship loyalty hardship love – this novel has everything'' Mary Beth Keane Ask Again Yes From the author of The Stationery Shop of Tehran a heartfelt epic new novel of friendship betrayal and redemption set against three transformative decades in Tehran Iran 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 of a friend to alleviate her isolation.Luckily on the first day of school she meets Homa a kind passionate 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 for 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.