About this item
"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 Cafe Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations. Iran may have changed, but Cafe 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.
About the Author
Donia Bijan is a Bay Area chef and author. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she attended the Cordon Bleu in Paris and ran her own restaurant, L'Amie Donia, in Palo Alto, for ten years. Her well-acclaimed memoir, "Maman's Homesick Pie", was published in 2011. Her novel, "The Last Days of Café Leila", will be released in April 2017 by Algonquin Books.
