What a stunning novel! Inspiring, evocative and emotionally satisfying.” This intergenerational story, of a mother and her daughter, dramatized in the moment where it lives is a feast for the reader’s senses and soul. This debut novel has it all, a comfpelling story of family, faith and love told with a longing heart and an appetite for life beyond the small Iranian village where Noor's roots are planted and her wings were born. “A glorious treat awaits you at the literary table of Donia Bijan.
“A love letter to family, food, and culture, The Last Days of Café Leila is a beautiful narrative with an undeniable ache for belonging at its center.”
And together, she and Lily get swept up in the beauty and brutality of Tehran.īijan’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. Iran may have changed, but Café 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.Īs 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. Now, dragging her stubborn teenage daughter, Lily, with her, she returns to Tehran and to Café Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations. When we first meet Noor, she is living in San Francisco, missing her beloved father, Zod, in Iran. 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.
“A glorious treat awaits you at the literary table of Donia Bijan.” -Adriana Trigiani
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