Last Days of Cafe Leila, the by Donia Bijan

Last Days of Cafe Leila, the by Donia Bijan

A glorious treat awaits you at the literary table of Donia Bijan. --Adriana Trigiani

Set against the backdrop of Iran's rich, turbulent history, this exquisite debut novel is a powerful story of food, family, and a bittersweet homecoming. When we first meet Noor, she is living in San Francisco, missing her beloved father, Zod, in Iran. Now, dragging her stubborn teenage daughter, Lily, with her, she returns to Tehran and to Caf Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations. Iran may have changed, but Caf Leila, still run by Zod, has stayed blessedly the same--it is a refuge of laughter and solace for its makeshift family of staff and regulars.

As Noor revisits her Persian childhood, she must rethink who she is--a mother, a daughter, a woman estranged from her marriage and from her life in California. And together, she and Lily get swept up in the beauty and brutality of Tehran.

Bijan's vivid, layered story, at once tender and elegant, funny and sad, weaves together the complexities of history, domesticity, and loyalty and, best of all, transports readers to another culture, another time, and another emotional landscape.

Bijan, Donia: - Donia Bijan is the author of the novel The Last Days of Cafü¾Ž–”¼ Leila and the memoir Maman's Homesick Pie. She graduated from UC Berkeley and Le Cordon Bleu. After presiding over many of San Francisco's acclaimed restaurants and earning awards for her French-inspired cuisine, in 1994 she opened her own restaurant, L'amie Donia, in Palo Alto. Since closing her restaurant, she divides her days between teaching and writing.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781616205850
ISBN 10	1616205857
Title	Last Days of Cafe Leila, the
Author	Donia Bijan
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	Algonquin Books
Year published	2017-04-18
Number of pages	304
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.