In his new novel, “Bird of a Thousand Stories,” which is billed as young adult, but which all adults will find charming, Kiyash Monsef continues the story he began in “Once There Was.” It’s the tale of Marjan, who comes from a long line of Persian healers of fantastical animals. Marjan didn’t realize her talents until her father died, and those who needed her services came for her.

In the first novel, we learn about Marjan and her sometimes employers, the Fells, a wealthy family that deals in the buying and selling of magical creatures. Marjan learns the history of the relationships between the Fells, her family, and the animals. She is greatly disturbed by the manner in which they view the creatures as mere commodities, items which will make them money. To Marjan, they are much more.

In this novel, Marjan’s story continues. Her friends are important, including her good friend Malloryn, a wannabe witch who works in an occult store. Marjan is still in school, and she struggles to pay for food and to keep the heat on in the house she inherited from her father. Right now, wildfires are causing the air in San Francisco to be unhealthy. To breathe, they must wear masks outside, and they seal their windows with tape to keep the polluted air outside.

It’s while working for the Fells to help a creature who is so delightful to imagine that we want it to be real when Marjan runs into a man who is brutal and seems possessed. He finds Marjan in the rug shop that belongs to a distant relative, someone who possessed the same skills as Marjan and her father, but who passed the baton years before. The man leaves a dead faerie in his wake, and Marjan insists on burying it.

Monsef tells the story by alternating Marjan’s tale with a story-within-a-story, the chapters titled “The Bird of a Thousand Stories,” which is the story of two orphans searching for their parents. What we realize is that they are really searching for their story, and what Monsef shares with us eventually is that the whole book is a story about the stories we tell and their importance to us all.

It’s very appropriate that in the acknowledgments, he shares that the inspiration for this story comes from several other stories. As he notes, many of our old stories, our lore, overlap from one culture to another, and the same story, or a similar story, might come from different parts of the world. In other words, we all share similar stories and thus we all share a common spirit.

While this is a beautiful and thoughtful story to read, I believe it would be a really powerful novel to read in a class or with a group of young adults. There are many themes in the novel that beg for discussion. The way that Marjan considers the noble girls in Iran who speak out about oppression and misogyny in spite of the very real danger to their lives; she yearns to make a difference as they do. Her determination to do what is right even at the very real risk to her own safety is just one admirable quality she possesses.

And, of course, it’s a story about our stories, our myths, our ancient lore and our more recent lore, and the importance such stories have; the fact that no matter how far we are from others, our stories connect us. What would happen if all our stories were taken away? That’s a very real question in the novel, and in real life, in a world where children no longer read entire books in school, it’s a very pressing question. Are our stories being read, being heard, being shared? And if they are not, what will happen to our society?

Finally, one must comment on the beautiful writing and the lovely description Monsef creates in this novel that at times reads like poetry. As we are reading, we feel the magic through the fantastical web that Monsef weaves through his choice of words and the rhythm of the sentences. This is a beautiful book, and reading it is an almost magical experience.

Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by Simon & Schuster, the publisher, for review purposes.