Together Tea

Set in the mid-1990s with extensive flashbacks to pre- and post-revolutionary Iran, the novel follows Mina Rezayi, a 25-year-old Iranian-American student at Columbia Business School, and her mother, Darya, as they navigate identity, loss, and belonging across two countries and two generations.

Darya calls Mina to announce her latest find: Mr. Dashti, a PhD chemist in Atlanta. Darya maintains folders on potential Persian bachelors, assigning numerical values to qualities like education and kindness to mothers. Mina, who secretly wants to quit business school and become a painter, has no interest in marriage. Mina's father, Parviz, known as Baba, is a doctor who had to work at a pizza shop when the family first arrived in America. Inspired by a self-help guru's audiotapes, he urged Darya to pursue her love of mathematics, which she channels into a Saturday math camp with fellow immigrant friends Kavita Das and Yung-Ja Kim.

Darya pressures Mina by invoking Mamani, Darya's mother, who arranged Darya's marriage to Parviz. Darya cries when speaking of Mamani, who was killed by a bomb during the Iran-Iraq War while buying pomegranates. Mina reluctantly agrees to meet Mr. Dashti. He arrives for Sunday lunch following the rituals of tarof, a Persian tradition of exaggerated politeness, but the encounter reveals that neither he nor Mina wants this arrangement.

That night, Darya lies awake and wakes Parviz to talk. He discovers a spreadsheet class and mails the registration before she can object. There, Sam Collins, a guitar teacher her age, smiles at Darya in a way that makes her feel young. Meanwhile, Mina daydreams through business school, planning a winter break trip to Iran to see her grandfather, Agha Jan, and her childhood best friend, Bita. When Sam invites Darya for coffee, Parviz arrives and finds only Darya and Sam. His silence on the drive home unsettles Darya. Mina announces her trip; Baba objects, but Darya supports it on one condition: Mina must commit to business school upon return. Darya will accompany her, acknowledging that Sam has created a fracture with Parviz and that she longs for home.

The narrative shifts to 1978 Tehran. Mina is almost eight, drawing pictures of the crown prince at school, praised by her teacher as "With-Art." Demonstrations erupt. Mina's brothers, Hooman and Kayvon, chant revolutionary slogans while Mina defends the Shah. The revolution succeeds and a religious regime takes power. Mandatory hijab, the required headscarf for women, becomes law. Mamani helps Mina put on her headscarf and roopoosh tunic, explaining Iran's cyclical history of dress codes, while Darya sits frozen with anger. Mina finds solace at Mamani's house, where Mamani reads from her tattered blue leather book of Persian poetry by Rumi, Saadi, and Hafez.

In September 1980, Iraq attacks Iran. Kayvon teaches Mina karate in the bomb shelter, focusing on the side heel thrust kick. Bita smuggles a Grease soundtrack cassette to school; the children savor forbidden Western music. For Mina's tenth birthday, Darya prepares a feast requiring hidden alcohol, locked doors, and barricaded entrances. The next morning, Mamani goes to buy pomegranates for Mina. A bomb hits the greengrocer's stall and kills her. Mina is consumed by guilt, remembering she asked for those pomegranates.

The family flees Iran at midnight, leaving beds unmade. On the plane, Darya prays, shocking Mina, who has never seen her mother recite Koran verses. In New York, Darya buys crimson hair dye, fulfilling a vow to dye her hair once free from mandatory veils, and finds work sewing at a dry cleaner's. On her first day of school, Mina hears the Pledge of Allegiance, a contrast to the "Death to America" chants she recited in Tehran. A classmate bullies her about the Iran hostage crisis; she stands up for herself. Years pass. Baba earns his medical license. The children become Americans, but Darya never will: Fireworks still make her want to crouch with her hands over her head.

The narrative returns to 1996. Mina and Darya arrive in Tehran to relatives bearing flowers. Agha Jan holds a pink rose: "You've come home. You've come to us." Everything at his house is the same except Mamani is missing. On a walk, Agha Jan breaks down weeping, accusing America of selling arms to Saddam Hussein. Mina is shaken, unable to defend either country from within the other.

At a welcoming party, Bita arrives, tracked down through Darya's networks, and invites Mina to a gathering where young guests shed Islamic dress for club attire. Mina retreats to the kitchen, where Ramin Dashti, an Iranian-American architect from Connecticut visiting his dying grandmother, accidentally flings the door open. They talk all evening. Bita reveals Ramin is the younger brother of the Mr. Dashti Darya brought to Queens. Darya arranges for them to meet at People's Park. When guards arrive, they hide on opposite sides of a sycamore tree and share an intimate conversation through the trunk. Ramin whispers, "Give me your hand." Their fingers intertwine as snow begins to fall. Mina realizes she has fallen in love.

They travel to Persepolis, the ancient Achaemenian ruins. When Bita removes her headscarf at sunset, a guard threatens arrest, and Mina executes the side heel thrust kick Kayvon taught her so they can escape. In Isfahan, an artisan shows Mina his hidden room of etched trays and khatam boxes, items decorated with traditional Persian marquetry. He tells her his son died in the war and his wife has depression. "We artists have to do our work. Every day," he says. "Governments come and go." Mina buys a khatam box and resolves to paint again. Darya, wandering the bazaar, realizes she misses Parviz; Sam was never more than a flirtation.

On their last night, Bita takes Mina to the rooftop and urges her not to quit business school but to do both. "Paint us if you don't know what to paint," she says. "Show them we exist."

Back in New York, Mina paints every morning before classes. Phone calls with Ramin feel stilted, but weeks later he appears in Riverside Park where Mina is painting. His grandmother's death had caused him to withdraw. He tells Mina he feels like an outsider everywhere except with her, and she feels the same. He kisses her under the tree for all to see. Darya's subplot also resolves: She and Sam share a final tea as goodbye, and at a later performance, Sam plays Darya's favorite Persian folk song. Darya reaches for Parviz's hand and falls asleep that night in the arms of the man who helped her climb mountains long ago.

On the wedding day, Darya prepares the traditional Persian bridal sofreh, a ceremonial wedding spread, on Mamani's handmade termeh, a traditional handwoven Persian cloth. Mina adds the khatam box from Isfahan. Darya has stopped dyeing her hair red, no longer needing to prove her freedom. Following tradition, Mina stays silent the first two times the officiant asks if she accepts Ramin; on the third, she shouts "Yes!" Darya gives Mina a gold necklace Mamani gave her on her own wedding day. In the kitchen, Mina embraces Darya and thanks her for everything. Mina leads Darya onto the dance floor, where mother and daughter dance together as guests celebrate around them.