Yet when we read of the terrors to women, we begin to understand Zod in a way his daughter cannot. She has not seen what we readers have. The tail end of the story has an aftertaste of that Lifetime movie aforementioned, but not in a bad way. Recipes and food preparation are presented throughout the book for us to sample. Teenaged Lily is dangerously and naiively brazen in a country that kills for far less. And Noor still procrastinates upon making decisions and declarations. But Zod is there, preparing sweet dough in our dreams and calling the name of his wife every night in his own sleep.
View all 9 comments. Cafe Leila is a family owned business in Tehran that has been there for 3 generations, making Iranian dishes with the freshest ingredients. Zod, the chef at Cafe Leila and the father of Noor and Marquad, lost his wife Peri to Islamic thugs, because as a women she spoke out. She was raped and stoned repeatedly in th The Last Days of Cafe Leila by Donia Bijan, is a powerful and emotional novel of love, loss and homecoming in Iran. She was raped and stoned repeatedly in the street, taken to prison and eventually hanged. To save his teenaged children, he sent them to America to live with his brother where they went to school and grew into adults, married and had their own children.
Life for women in Iran is frustrating and sometimes horrible, but Lily sees through it all to the beauty of her family and new friends. Even though there we a few editing mishaps, for a debut novel I found it memorable and may read it again just to spend more time with the characters. View all 11 comments. Oct 08, Donna rated it it was ok Shelves: I liked the immersion into the cultural part of this as the author described the culture, expectations, the food, and the people. The relationships were also strong, and so was the strength of love and how to face loss. Even though I liked the characters, I just wasn't pulled into this one.
I kept waiting for that to happen. The main factor that contributed to that was the descriptive style That part was too much. But this style of writing also filter I liked the immersion into the cultural part of this as the author described the culture, expectations, the food, and the people.
But this style of writing also filtered into other descriptions. It was too wordy for me. Mar 10, RoseMary Achey rated it liked it. Noor has lived in the United States for almost two decades after leaving her native Tehran for University. This is the story of her return to Iran with her recalcitrant teen daughter in tow. I found this to be a lovely, emotional read that happily contained beautiful prose.
Set in Tehran, it fascinated me with it's emphasis on the influence of the Persian culture on family and traditions. View all 6 comments. Mar 16, Nancy rated it it was amazing. This is a complex and beautifully written novel. It centers on family and home. It is crafted around three generations from America to Tehran. Her descriptions,especially about food, are unparalleled. Tis will be one of my favorites for a long time to come.
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Apr 18, Doreen rated it it was ok Shelves: I enjoy books which illuminate other cultures so I really looked forward to reading this book. Though it does indeed provide details about Iranian culture, it does so in a narrative that I can only describe as awkward and unsophisticated. Noor, recently divorced, returns to Iran after a year absence to visit her aging father Zod. Noor is accompanied by her recalcitrant teenaged daughter Lily.
Noor is returning home but Lily has difficulty adjusting to life in Iran. There are numerous flashbacks. The story is narrated from multiple perspectives: The author obviously wanted to create well-rounded characters, but the effect is a lack of focus. Karim is a minor character and there seems little purpose to being repeatedly told that he is in love with Lily. For all the references to him, Karim remains a flat character. Zod is a major character but he is not believable.
He is just too good to be true. He cares about everyone, is wise, is unfailingly optimistic, and is loved by everyone. His behaviour, however, is inconsistent. He tells his daughter to visit him and to bring Lily with her: Noor is supposed to be a dynamic character who grows, but we are only told that she grows. We are given a thorough description of her flaws: When had this girl, who defied them in childhood, who never got her way fast enough, grown timid and undemanding, so frustratingly passive in the face of humiliation?
It was exhausting being Noor, but she meant well. She always had meant well. Her bold, brutal honesty was what he admired.
One of the major techniques of showing is dialogue. This novel has little dialogue and certainly no extended conversations that would reveal character.
The Last Days of Café Leila excerpt | theranchhands.com
The dialogue that is included seems to serve little purpose. And sometimes hard-boiled eggs. Yet at our best or worst, who sees everything? Who knows us best? Who waits and waits to see what we yet may be?
See a Problem?
The problem with this book is that it sounds like an essay at times: Since this sister-in-law never appears in the novel, is the purpose of this paragraph just to discuss an Iranian custom? And the descriptions of food go on and on: Nejad, how are you feeling? And would a person actually use a conjunction, and only a conjunction, in another language: I fear I have been rather harsh in my review, but I honestly find little to recommend this book.
I read an eARC so perhaps changes will be made. Please check out my reader's blog http: View all 4 comments. Apr 21, Jane rated it really liked it Shelves: A story set in present-day is that of Noor, whose father has sent her to America as a teenager with her brother when the Revolution and subsequent ultra-Islamism exploded in the country. There are flashbacks of family history. Noor is now separated from her husband and at the behest of her father, Zod, returns with a sullen, sulky adolescent daughter, Lily, to visit her father.
He is very ill with cancer and wants to see her before he dies. We see life in post-Revolution Iran. An act of horrific violence brings something good from it for Lily. This spreads to the whole family. After Zod's death, the day comes when Noor and Lily are to return to the States The ending disappointed, but I do see the logic. Such mouth-watering descriptions of Persian cuisine fascinated me. I wish, like "Like Water for Chocolate", to which, although set in a different time and place, I compared this story, the author had included some of the simpler Persian recipes at the back.
Not only a gastronome's delight, any local color of Iran and Iranian family life was inspired. View all 3 comments. I loved this book!! I thought this would be a story where the unrest of the country would not enter into it, but that was not to be. Noor was sent to America along with her brother so they could have a better life than their father could give them in Iran. She builds a life there for herself but she has a crisis of her own which sends her back to Iran after being away for 30 years. It truly was a beautifully written story, parts were difficult but realistic.
I would highly recommend this book! Feb 24, Lynne rated it really liked it. That, plus the cover is gorgeous! Jul 20, Shilpi Gowda added it. Lovely inter-generational family story in post-revolutionary Iran. Nov 06, Jo Dervan rated it it was amazing. Noor returned to her native Tehran after the breakup of her marriage. She and her 15 year old daughter, Lily, traveled from California to visit with her father, Zoli. Noor quickly discovered that the Iran she once knew had changed dramatically after the Islamic government came into power.
The Cafe Leila, which had been a owned by her family for 3 generations, was no longer as grand as it had once been but her father and his workers still maintained it as a local gathering place. Then Noor learned Noor returned to her native Tehran after the breakup of her marriage. Then Noor learned that her father was terminally ill and so she decided to remain in Tehran for a longer period so she could use her nursing skill to care for him. The author, an Iranian immigrant who was educated in the US, painted a vivid picture of life had changed under the Islamic government in Iran. She explained about how Noor's grandparents had been immigrants from Russia before settling in Iran.
She showed us how a misunderstanding between Noor's mother and a taxi driver resulted in her Mom's imprisonment and death at the hands of the police. The author also used the traditional Iranian foods to show us that although much had changed in the country, the people still held with many traditions. Some of these traditions and activities had to be done secretly in their homes as they were not permitted in public. This is also a story of family bonds that remained strong even after a 30 year separation. Chi ci conosce meglio di chiunque altro?
Noor non voleva doversi trovare a desiderare di essere stata una persona migliore. Come madre, si sarebbe appellata alla fiducia di Lily per accettare che quello che i suoi genitori avevano o non avevano fatto era stato qualcosa di eroico, che lei non sarebbe stata in grado di eguagliare. Ma ci avrebbe comunque provato. May 27, Chrissie rated it it was amazing. I finally was able to steal away time today to sit and finish this most beautiful book!
Donia Bijan is a wonderful storyteller, with such beautiful language, emotion and feeling. I just loved reading every page, falling in love with the characters the story and the words themselves as the life of Zod and his family members are revealed to the reader.
I loved Donia's first book and was looking forward to this one, and it did not disappoint. Jun 22, Jane Reagh rated it it was amazing. This book is a wonderful combination of luscious and enjoyable reading and fascinating content about Iran and the changes under the Ayatollah. I have read both of Bijan's books and recommend them for anyone who likes to think as well as be entertained. I think this would be a great book for book club discussions! Aug 09, Laura Stone rated it it was ok. It was interesting from a cultural standpoint and it started off well but fell off in the latter half.
The story just turned rather strange and some odd little short incidents that added nothing overall to the plot. I also didn't care for the ending much. Dec 30, Caroline rated it really liked it. Bittersweet and absolutely delicious! Thank you Donia Bijan for telling this story and bringing me into a world both unknown and familiar.
I will certainly recommend it in our little bookshop, The Book Garden. Jun 21, Inga rated it really liked it. A wonderful book to feast over! Beautifully written exquisite imagery. Apr 08, Tonstant Weader rated it really liked it. Donia Bijan writes about a loving family that finds its way to love from generation to generation, through the tragedies of revolution and the reluctant diaspora of emigration. Zod sent both his children, hoping to protect them from the excesses of the Iranian theocracy.
Noor has been married twenty years when she discovers her husband, Nelson, has been cheating on her. Zod invites her to come back to Tehran for a few weeks hoping to heal her heart. She takes her reluctant and resentful daughter Lily with her. This family is open-hearted and full of life and they draw people in, they take people in, creating an extended family of friends, of employees who are more like family, and even strangers who need shelter.
I enjoyed the book and want the author to write a cookbook. But, I was haunted by that voice. I had to find a way to capture that intense feeling of belonging and not belonging, of being sister and stranger. Writing a novel was my way of making something out of the beautiful ruins of my birthplace, to show the courage and tolerance of those who stayed, and also those who had to leave. For me, there was no going back; but could I come up with a fictional character to take me there?
Did being able to return to your family home make you feel more grounded as either an American or Iranian? You leave a place but that place never leaves you. I spent years trying to dodge that question. Tehran stopped being home a long time ago.
The Last Days of Café Leila
If home is people, I have no family left there. My parents are buried here. One of my closest friends is Persian. She was sent as a teenager to live with a family in Denver. She was plopped into middle America without any cultural support. She was bullied, accosted, etc. Did you face such hostility and abuse as a newly-arrived teenager? I came alone in I went to high school in Michigan. I stayed with a wonderful family who took me under their wing; their daughter is my best friend to this day.
It was the eve of my 16th birthday, and I was lucky to be welcomed into their family. Her Mom treated me like a daughter, she made sure I went to the prom. It may be because I grew up bilingual my mom insisted that we learn English and I could communicate, keep up with the curriculum. Of course, I was incredibly awkward socially but I kept my head down and my eyes and ears open so I could learn as much as I could about this new world. Yes, all of us Iranian teenagers were inventing obscure islands off the coast of Italy.
More so in college than in high school. Mehran, based on your own father. But surely other aspects of your life somehow seeped into these pages? Any other defining moments that inspired the novel? That is what I love about writing — how authors live this double life, how their imaginary world and their day-to-day life collide. When out in the world on book tour, or being a public figure on the ever-available Internet that seems to reach every corner of the globe, given the current state of aggravated world tension, have you had any negative encounters as an author of Iranian heritage?
On the other hand, I have submitted some op-ed pieces to newspapers that were published online, and there were some truly sad comments. What a great question. What my son knows about Iran is food, music, and affection. Of course, he knows the history, he knows what his grandmother did for women in Iran and what his grandfather did for his patients.