THIS WOVEN KINGDOM by Tahereh Mafi

Tahereh Mafi, one of my favorite writers, is reinterpreting an Iranian fairy tale in her new book “This woven kingdom.”
What I really liked about this story, besides the craft of Tahereh’s written words, was the teachings that I believe should be true for all the parents, no matter what their financial status is.

The princess, Alizeh, was not only educated by tutors but taught by her parents to know how to work with her hands as well:

“Alizeh’s mother and father had thought it critical to teach their child not only to care and clean for her own home, but to have basic knowledge of most all technical and mechanical labor; they’d wanted her to know the weight of a day’s work.
But then, they’d only meant to teach her a valuable lesson–they’d never meant for her to earn her living this way.

While Alizeh had spent her younger years being honed by masters and tutors, so, too, had her parents humbled her in preparation for her imagined future, insisting always upon the greater good, the essential quality of compassion.”

The prince, Kamran, is not taking for granted his fortune either. And he is questioning his designated future:

“All else in his life was an inheritance.
Every cup, every jewel, every buckle and boot came with a price, an expectation. A legacy.

Kamran hadn’t been asked to choose; instead, he’d been ordered to obey, which had never before struck him as particularly cruel, for his was not such a difficult life.
He had struggles, certainly, but Kamran owned no proclivity for fairy tales.
He wasn’t so deluded as to imagine he might be happier as a peasant, nor did he dream of living a humble life with a woman of common stock and weak intelligence.
His was a life he’d never before questioned, for it had never before constrained him.
He’d wanted for nothing, and as a result deigned not to lower himself to the experience of desire, for desire was the pastime of poorer men, men whose only weapons against the world’s cruelty were their imagination.”

Above all, the prince understands the value of an intelligent wife:

“Kamran did not possess the necessary stupidity to desire anyone who sought only to claim his money, his power, his title.
The very idea filled him with revulsion.”

And the love story is swooning!!!

Kindle, 2022