The last days of Café Leila : a novel /

Noor is lost in more ways than one. Having been set adrift in her adopted country of America after discovering her husband's infidelity, she returns home to Iran at her father's invitation, her teenage daughter reluctantly in tow. Noor hasn't been back to Tehran in the decades since her father sent her and her brother to California to escape the brutal post-revolution regime. Now she must put on a head scarf when entering Iranian airspace, and her daughter can only swim at a females-only pool. But among all the changes, her father's restaurant remains a community hub, its food and hospitality offering solace from the troubled world outside. As befits a restaurateur's household, in Noor's family their love is beautifully expressed through the meals they create together. For the most part, Iran's politics seem to exist on the periphery of their lives, which makes the sudden intrusions of the authorities all the more startling. Bijan has crafted a richly layered story of the deep connections within a family, resilient links that survive tragedy and distance.--Thoreson, Bridget Copyright 2017 Booklist

For eight decades, Tehran's Café Leila has dispensed fresh, inventive fare and comfort. Second-generation proprietor Zod -Yadegar, esteemed for his culinary improvisation and limitless hospitality, sturdily preserves the eatery as a haven for locals and longtime staff. However, the third generation manifests little of Zod's tenacity: once--indomitable daughter Noor, dispatched to America 30 years ago in the wake of tragedy, now returns, freshly heartbroken and emotionally adrift, in the grudging company of teenaged daughter Lily. As Lily's guileless responses to brutal realities of post-revolution Iran ultimately reawaken Noor's sense of purpose, narrator Deepti Gupta channels the resurgence beautifully. Gupta differentiates characters' ages adeptly and paces her delivery to afford full enjoyment of lovingly depicted recipe preparation and sensory imagery that celebrates the unique setting, the restorative powers of nature, and the alchemy that transforms ingredients into compassion. VERDICT Bijan's graceful, satisfying tale of intergenerational love, individual and cultural identity, and persevering humanity will have readers-especially fans of Diana Abu-Jaber's Crescent, Nicole Mones's The Last Chinese Chef, and stories by Adriana Trigiani, Lisa See, or Jhumpa Lahiri-yearning to seek out Café Leila and order the pomegranate soup. Highly recommended for public libraries. ["A rich helping of Iran's complex food, culture, and political history": LJ 5/1/17 starred review of the Algonquin hc.]-Linda Sappenfield, Round Rock P.L., TX © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

This lyrical debut novel, an immigrant saga and coming-of-age story, provides a tantalizing look at Iran pre- and post-revolution.It begins with a present-day reunion: Noor, sent to America to study when the Islamists took over in the 1970s, has returned to Tehran to visit her beloved father, Zod. She is accompanied by her teenage daughter, LilyNoor and the girl's father are divorcedwho wants no part of the homecoming. The ailing Zod runs a diminished version of Caf Leila, once a celebrated restaurant with an adjoining hotel and lush garden, where Noor and her brother grew up: "[It] contained their history, everything important had happened here," the author writes. "It had been her entire world, an oasis where on hot summer afternoons they drank iced mint sherbets under a canopy of trees." The book then flashes back, filling in the story of how Zod's parents emigrated from Russia to Iran, his studies in Paris as a young man, and his blissfully happy marriage to Noor's mother, Pari. It also traces Noor's often lonely life as an migr in northern California. In Tehran again, the focus shifts to Lily and her transition from a belligerent wild child to an almost grown-up who begins to embrace her Persian roots. There is drama aplenty in these pagesinvolving Pari's untimely death, in particularbut everything feels authentic; the writing is precise and self-assured. The author, an Iranian migr who became a chef in America (publishing a recipe-laced memoir, Maman's Homesick Pie, 2011), sprinkles her novel with sensuous descriptions of food, underlining its connection to memory. And she tells her story from multiple perspectives, creating sympathetic characters with rich inner lives. If the ending isn't completely satisfying, it's at least pleasantly unexpected. Poignant and absorbing, the book explores the pull not only of family, but of the place we first call home. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.