Review of The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali

Kamali's powerful story of enduring friendship spans decades and is shaped by years of political turmoil in Iran. The childhood best friends at the heart of the novel grow apart, then reunite in complicated circumstances. This is wonderful.

I feel as though I've been hearing rave reviews of this book for so long, it must have been published five years ago. (It actually came out in August 2025.)

Marjan Kamali's The Lion Women of Tehran is historical fiction that begins in 1950s Tehran, where young Ellie lives in opulence with her mother and father. But after her father's untimely death, daughter and mother quickly face the hard reality of women's inability to own property or assert rights.

Ellie and her mother must move to a poor section of town, where Ellie's mom stews with resentment at her loss of status and comfort. Her mother is unable to accept their new situation, and she is disgusted by what she perceives is the low class of their neighbors, as well as by Ellie's school, which is not as well-respected as her former one. She refuses to work or better their circumstances in any practical way...until she gives in and marries her brother-in-law, immediately benefiting from his financial security.

Ellie turns to Homa, a local girl, for companionship, and their deep, volatile friendship endures; as they grow up this friendship shapes the novel.

With enormous shifts in Iran as catalysts for changes in their own lives, the friends dramatically diverge in their life goals--marriage for one, activism for the other--and life pushes and pulls them in different directions so that they are eventually both figuratively and literally a world apart.

But Kamali offers a messy, heartwarming, heartbreaking story in which against all odds the women come back together--their betrayals, disappointments, shortcomings, and secrets threatening to thwart their closeness, but their love and loyalty evident.

This was powerful, beautiful, and poignant. I loved this story.

More Books You Might Like

Marjan Kamali is also the author of The Stationery Shop and Together Tea.

You might also want to check out these books featuring friends like family and these historical fiction Bossy favorites.