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Loading... The Last Days of Café Leilaby Donia Bijan
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. fiction (Iranian-American mother and daughter visit grandfather in mom's childhood house in Tehran - includes instances of violence against women). Told in alternating points of view (grandfather, mother, grandmother, granddaughter) with a plentiful dose of drama and heart. #ownvoices #weneeddiversebooks Noor's family in Iran have have run a restaurant for generations although Noor has lived in the US for thirty years and has a teenage daughter, Lily. Recently divorced, she took Lily, with her ex-husband's permission, for a vacation in Iran and then decided to stay. It is understandable that an expat will want to return to her homeland to care for aging parents but this story is more like child abduction - and to a country that has few basic freedoms for women. I'm attributing this poor decision to the emotional devastation Noor experienced after the divorce. The book was disappointing, the writing immature, missing something that I thought might have been lost in a poor translation. This, however, was not the case for the book was written in English. My version was an audiobook that was not narrated well. This review was written for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Very well written sweet little book.Would recommend it to friends and would read other books by this author based on my liking of this one. no reviews | add a review
Distinctions
"When Noor returns to her native Iran for the first time in thirty years, with her very American daughter, Lily, so much about her homeland is different. But Café Leila--the restaurant Noor's family has run for three generations--hasn't changed. A neighborhood café in Tehran is at the center of this powerful and transporting story of love, family, friendship, and homecoming told against the backdrop of Iran's rich, yet tragic, history"-- No library descriptions found. |
LibraryThing Early Reviewers AlumDonia Bijan's book The Last Days of Café Leila was available from LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Current DiscussionsNonePopular covers
Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Noor's father sent her to America when she was eighteen, away from the difficult and brutal life in post-revolution Iran. More than thirty years later Noor goes back to Tehran after she divorces her husband, sulky fifteen-year-old daughter Lily in tow. That summer, spent with the people who loved Noor enough to send her away, will change them both, in ways that neither could imagine.
My heart was touched by the story. It's another one for my recommend-to-friends shelf. ( )