Chapter 36: Roya Shams — Summary, Analysis, and Key Themes

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 36 shifts perspective to Roya Shams, recounting a visit to Tehran in August 1987. Roya is staying with Leila while their husbands are away on a camping trip. Roya describes Leila as an eager presence pulling her forward through the visit, like a horse charging ahead while Roya struggles to hold the reins.

On the second day, the two women walk through Bazaar-e Tajrish on an unseasonably cold day. The bazaar is crowded and chaotic, with vendors selling food, flowers, and goods, and men calling to one another.

Midway through the bazaar, Leila suddenly pulls Roya into a bare side alley that bends into another alley. The path is thin and dirty, ending in brick apartments and garbage cans, with clothes drying on balconies above. Without explanation, Leila kneels and presses her ear to the asphalt, claiming she can hear angels playing drums deep underground. She insists Roya can hear them too, describing the earth as filled with angels and djinn partying like teenagers.

Hesitantly, Roya kneels and presses her ear to the cold ground near Leila's. She hears nothing—just earth—and feels embarrassed, as if she's missing the joke. Leila explains that Roya must listen to the sounds beneath sounds. Leila begins tapping a rhythm on the ground and speaks of angels drumming under the soil, under all the dead and their ancient skeletons. Roya asks if Leila is making fun of her and lifts her head.

Leila sits up, scoots closer, and takes Roya's middle finger, placing it on her own closed eyelid. She moves her open eye up and down, and Roya feels the closed eye beneath her finger matching the movement. Leila explains that even the closed eye is still searching for Roya's face—and that this is how Leila has been searching for her.

Then Leila leans forward and kisses Roya on the lips. Roya's eyes stay open in surprise, and though she should be afraid of being seen, she holds the kiss and kisses back. Leila's hand moves to Roya's cheek; Roya's finger moves from Leila's eyelid to her earlobe. The kiss lasts three or four seconds but, Roya reflects, sets everything else in motion. She describes her life up to that moment as a painting she'd been staring at upside-down, and Leila flipped it right-side up.

Leila pulls away and apologizes. Roya, ears ringing and blood rushing, tells her not to be sorry. She references the eye and the angel's drums and says she thinks she understands. Leila smiles, curls peeking from under her headscarf. The two kneel in the alley staring at each other. Roya feels dizzy with aliveness, flush with bafflement and excitement, like tasting snow for the first time. Then, naturally, they stand and walk back into the bazaar.

Roya closes the chapter reflecting that after that first kiss, she wouldn't have questioned anything—possibility, freedom. If a great winged angel had risen from the earth and burst apart, she would have gathered its feathers.

Key Events

Roya visits Leila in Tehran while their husbands camp; Leila leads the visit energetically.
On a cold August day, they walk through Bazaar-e Tajrish.
Leila pulls Roya into a side alley and kneels to listen to the asphalt, claiming angels drum underground.
Roya listens but hears nothing; Leila teaches her about sounds beneath sounds and taps a rhythm.
Leila places Roya's finger on her closed eyelid, showing that even the closed eye searches for her face.
Leila kisses Roya; Roya kisses back despite fear of discovery.
Leila apologizes; Roya says not to be sorry and that she understands.
They return to the bazaar; Roya reflects that after the kiss she would have questioned nothing.

Character Development

Roya Shams: This chapter marks a turning point in Roya's inner life. She begins uncertain, embarrassed by her inability to hear what Leila hears, and worried about being seen. The kiss transforms her: she moves from confusion to clarity, from fear to acceptance. Her description of her life as an upside-down painting flipped right-side up signals a fundamental reorientation of her identity and desires. By the end, she is open to possibility and freedom in a way she never was before.

Leila: Leila is portrayed as bold, mystical, and direct. She initiates the alley detour, the listening ritual, and the kiss. Yet she is also vulnerable—she apologizes immediately and studies Roya's face for a reaction. Her demonstration with the closed eye reveals a deep, searching love that she has apparently been carrying for Roya.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Hidden truths beneath the surface: The central motif—angels drumming deep underground—mirrors the hidden truth of Roya and Leila's feelings. Roya initially hears nothing because she isn't listening deeply; the kiss reveals what was always beneath the surface.

Deep listening: Leila's instruction to listen to sounds beneath sounds is a metaphor for attending to what is unspoken. Roya's understanding comes through touch and the kiss.

The eye as a symbol of searching: Leila's closed eye still searching for Roya's face suggests that love persists even when hidden or unacknowledged—a fitting image for a queer desire that must remain concealed.

The alley as intimate space: The dirty, thin alley off the chaotic bazaar provides a private pocket within a public world—a space where the women can be themselves, even briefly.

The kiss as catalyst: Roya's life-flipping moment is triggered by the kiss, which reorders her understanding of everything that came before.

Sacred in the mundane: Leila finds angels in asphalt and drums in the ground, insisting that the divine is present in ordinary, even dirty, places.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is a crucial pivot in the novel's exploration of Roya's inner life and her relationship with Leila. It dramatizes a queer awakening in a setting where such desire must remain hidden, and it does so with tenderness rather than tragedy. The chapter also establishes Roya's voice as a narrator capable of profound reflection, and it introduces the idea that transformation can arrive suddenly and completely—a kiss that flips a life right-side up. The imagery of angels, drums, and the searching eye recurs in the novel's broader meditation on faith, longing, and the sacred.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Roya initially fail to hear the angels' drums, and what does Leila's instruction reveal about the chapter's deeper meaning?

Roya hears only earth because she is listening with the noise of the bazaar in her ears—the chaos of the public world. Leila's insistence on sounds beneath sounds teaches that meaning and truth require deeper attention. The chapter suggests that Roya's failure to hear is also a failure to recognize her own feelings, hidden beneath the surface of her ordinary life. The kiss is what finally makes her hear.

2. What does Leila's demonstration with her closed eyelid communicate about her feelings for Roya?

By placing Roya's finger on her closed eyelid and showing that the eye still searches even when shut, Leila reveals that her love for Roya has been constant and active even when unexpressed. The closed eye is a metaphor for concealed desire—it searches without being seen. Leila then makes the meaning explicit: that is how she has been searching for Roya.

3. How does Roya's description of her life as an upside-down painting reflect the chapter's theme of transformation?

Roya says her life was a painting she'd been staring at upside-down until Leila flipped it right-side up. This image suggests that the truth of her life—including her love for Leila—was always present but misread. The kiss reorients her perspective, making everything click into place. The image also implies that transformation is not about changing what exists but about seeing it correctly for the first time.