The Lion Women of Tehran

By: Marjan Kamali

Narrated by: Mozhan Navabi, Nikki Massoud

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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.

Critic reviews

"Mozhan Navabi performs this audiobook with the right tone and tempo. She narrates crisply and captures the guilt-ridden Ellie, who is tormented by her past. Ellie’s best friend, political activist Homa, is voiced with a younger sound and tone (by Nikki Massoud). Her voice is fitting for the youthful Iranian revolutionary who champions women’s rights and democracy and is jailed and abused for her beliefs."

Friendship and women’s rights in Iran

I enjoyed this book very much. I have to say I didn’t like the main character very much, but I did love the friendship she had with Homa. I also liked learning more about Iran and the oppression of women there.

Heartwarming, heartbreaking and historic

Everyone should have to read this book today given what is happening ing in the world right now. A beautiful story of two young women told over 7 decades in a country many of us know little about…but all benefit from knowing the history this book helps to unfold and educate as much as it pulls at one’s heart strings throughout the years covered. The two main characters are very different and yet the author’s descriptions help the reader/listener to feel every emotion so intensely. I thought the narration was quite well done - and can’t speak to the authenticity of the language but it felt on point for me. I loved how the author was able to provide such deep insights into each woman’s POV of the same situation to gift the reader with the reminder of how everyone perceives things differently and how this can often cause such unnecessary grief between people. Really made me consider different times in my own life where my interpretation may have been incorrect. A deeply touching story you will both enjoy and appreciate from so many different angles.

Kamala paints a poignant, heart wrenching and skillful tableau of what Iran was like pre and post revolution.

Loved her characters and recognized so many of them in the people I remember and know…

incredible story

Wow. The characters in The Lion Women of Tehran were so incredibly brave and felt so real. This story taught me so much about Iranian history in the second half of the twentieth century, about which I previously knew very little. It's a gripping story that was entertaining, informative, and inspiring. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in stories about strong women, Iran, or twentieth century politics. The narrators did a great job performing the audiobook.

the authentic narration

I finished this book in two days- such a soul stirring story about two friends amidst revolution . really enjoyed listening to the story