A beautifully written novel about a woman searching for herself. Noor is sympathetic and interesting, the setting is terrific, and it's a very good read.

The Last Days of Café Leila is a lovely story about family with many interesting details about Iranian culture. Well worth reading.

Donia Bijan's THE LAST DAYS OF CAFE LEILA is the immigrant novel you need to read.

A story of Family in it's purest, most raw form, it is the story of the 'American Dream'. It unwraps the almost mythological idea of the American Dream to compare what that means to the people who never come to America but know of it, the people who come to America and strive for it, and Americans who might take it for granted. That sounds like an awfully grand way to start a review but it is a fair way, as you'll know when come to the end of the story.

One of the most compelling hooks to the story is that our main characters, Zod and his daughter Noor, are Iranian. Zod is the son of a Russian immigrant to Iran and Noor becomes an Iranian immigrant to America, and daughter, Lily, because a child of two incredibly different worlds. That, the immigrant's story, is the basis for the story, for the characters and the choices they make throughout the novel.

Noor left Iran when she was eighteen, when Zod sent her and her older brother Mehrdad to America to go to school and make lives for themselves. Noor became a nurse, married a cardiac surgeon - an immigrant from Spain, and had her marriage fall part. When that happens, she goes home to Iran for the first time in eighteen years, taking her teenage daughter with her. The timing is painfully opportune because Zod is dying and needs to make peace with his life, just as much as Noor needs to be able to find herself in her roots.

Bijan tells the story of the family mostly with a present-day portrait of Zod, Noor, Lily, and the people surrounding them but there are flashes to the past, to when Noor and Mehrdad were children and Zod was in adoration of his wife, Pari, to when Noor was a young woman new to America, and even further back to when Zod was a student in Paris. The flashes to the past are important, because they tell the story of the Iranian Revolution, of how that shaped a family, and even of how the Russian Revolution shaped Zod and his descendants.

The action of the story, the height of intensity and character definition in it, is when Lily decides she's been in Iran long enough and she wants to go home. But it is present-day Iran and it isn't easy for anyone to move freely. Her plan, playing on the puppy love from a boy named Karim, comes off as almost contrived and cliched but, in the end, it shows just the right sense of teenager desperation to go home. And it serves a catalyst for Noor finally finding herself after a lifetime of defining herself by what she meant to someone else. Offered the chance to go home, to go back to being who Lily and Nelson defined her as, Noor stays in Iran to start being who she defines herself as, combining a world that will involve Lily, a badly injured Iranian girl called Ferry, and Cafe Leila - the place her grandparents began with recipes smuggled from Russia.

I am so honored to having been given an ARC of this book and I felt terrible that I hadn't read and reviewed it soon, but it turns out the paperback goes on sale today (April 7, 2018) so it's still timely. And it is a book I will buy a finished copy of, pester every reader I know to read, and read again. It is such a rich tale of immigrants, of East vs. West, of a woman's fight to be her own person in worlds where women are supposedly equal and where they are definitely not, and of family. There is nothing I can critique about the story, and it made me want to learn everything about Iran. These are definite signs of a good book, one that anyone reading these needs to try as soon as possible!

Facts & Figures

publication date: April 18. 2017 (Algonquin Books)

buy it: here

320 pages

genres/categories: fiction / Iran / immigrants / family / women / contemporary / history / San Francisco

my reading dates: March 12, 2018 - March 23, 2018

my rating: 5 stars

I received a copy of THE LAST DAYS OF CAFE LEILA through NetGalley, from Algonquin Books in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own, and are cross-posted on Goodreads, NetGalley, and my blog.

I honestly could tell by the writing of the first 2 chapters that it wouldn't be a good fit for our box and had to put it down. I may read it again in the future!

Loved this book
Didn't want it to finish
Highly recommend

Noor’s life has hit a speedbump. She works in a hospital as a nurse while raising her teenage daughter, Lily. Years of marriage are in question after becoming aware of her husband's infidelities. Noor decides to take some time to evaluate her life by taking her daughter to Tehran to visit her father. She has not seen her dad or Iran since she left for California at eighteen.

Noor’s dad runs “Cafe Leila” which has been the family business for years. It continues to serve as a social gathering place for the neighborhood. Reunited with her father, Noor finds that that his health is failing. She begins to connect with him and develops roots to her country. She finds Iran to be a much different place from her childhood memories.

This is the story of three generations tied to Iran through changing times. It is a wonderful story about love, loss, sacrifice, and the human spirit. I look forward to Donia Bijan’s next novel.

3.5 Zod has kept the cafe going, even throughout the many tumultuous years in Tehran, feeding anyone who needed or wanted to eat,. Even after his wife was killed in a horrible way, and due to these dangerous times especially for woman, he sends his daughter and son to America. Heartbroken he kept going, looking forward to letters sent by his daughter. Now though, a medical emergency has reared it's ugly head and his daughter Noor, dealing with a heartbreak of her own will return bringing with her a reluctant teenage daughter.

I initially didn't connect with this story, almost put it aside, so glad by books end that I did not. Inside is a story filed with a great deal of love, of a family that has weathered uncertain times but not easily and not without sorrow. Some wonderful characters here as well. We also learn some about this country and how woman are treated, Watch as a teenage girl raised in America tries to come to terms with the loss of freedom she is used to having.

This book has so much heart, sometimes it seemed as if things were going to turn out to good to be true, but the author manages to deftly turn the tide. The decision Noor makes at the end is the same decision I can see myself making in the same circumstances. An emotional read but a worthy one.

ARC from Netgalley.

I have to be honest and say that, while I was intrigued by the characters, this one didn't hold my attention and I stopped reading after around 50 pages.

This book was something special. Bijan's writing drew me in immediately, despite having nothing in common with an Iranian-American nurse going through a divorce with her Spanish-American husband and the angst of her teenage daughter. When Noor returns to Iran with her daughter to essentially pull herself back together, the novel gets even better. Subtly over time, Bijan relates the history of the family who runs Café Leila, from Noor's grandparents who emigrated from Russia to her parents who lived through the Iranian Revolution to her own experience as an immigrant to the U.S. and her daughter's experience as a girl of mixed ancestry belonging nowhere. I don't have the gift with words that Bijan so clearly does, because I find it difficult to articulate how seamlessly she blends together all of this information layering the past into the present and creating this full picture without long rambling passages. I feel like I experience and learned a lot from this slim novel. It is a beautiful story of family and identity and the joining of the two. Highly recommended, even for those (like me) who know little or nothing of Iran.

Part of my Reading All Around the World Challenge, this is a book written by a chef in the U.S. who was born in Iran. Café Leila tells the story of an Iranian family that experiences terrifying changes in the country after the revolution and establishment of the Islamic Republic in the early 1980’s.

The book begins in the present day, with Noor, a nurse, packing a romantic anniversary picnic for her husband Nelson. When Nelson calls off on account of a work emergency, Noor brings the picnic to his workplace and sees him with another woman. Their marital difficulties bring about Noor’s decision to finally return to her birthplace, Tehran, and to introduce teenage daughter Lily to her grandfather.

I quickly got into this story, finding Noor's situation quite interesting. The story stalled a bit, however, when the narration switched to her father Zod, in a lengthy description of his childhood, his marriage, and running Café Leila, his restaurant.

This is a book written by a chef, and is clearly Bijan’s honoring the flavors of her childhood. If you love reading about cooking, you'll love this aspect of the book. I was a little less enthused. I really wanted much more historical information about what was happening in Iran at the time. We know there’s a revolt and a regime change, and then Bijan describes fear and oppression, but we’re never given any specifics.

But despite the early part of this book feeling a bit slow, the tension builds as we learn about what happened to Noor's mother. Noor is sent to America as a teenager, for reasons that are never fully explained to her. Iran is the place of her cherished childhood, and all of her happy family memories, so it's difficult for her to reconcile that with the country she returns to.

This is Bijan's first novel (she has also written a memoir about her mother, cooking, and her childhood in Iran). It sounds like this book is very much based on Bijan's own family experiences, which I appreciate. However, because the book didn’t give me a lot of historical context, I had to seek out more information about what happened in Iran in the late 70s and the situation today.

I had real difficulty with Noor’s attitude towards her daughter. I could understand bringing her to Iran against her will, because a teenager should meet family and learn about her history. And I know full well that a teenager dealing with her parents' divorce isn't going to be easy. But Noor is so blind to her daughter’s wishes, to the extent where she's considering keeping her in Iran, away from father and friends, and forcing her to live in a world where women don’t have even the most basic freedoms. I just can’t for a minute understand that from a mother, although I do understand Noor’s own ambivalence towards the country she loves, and I do understand the difficulty she is having making even basic decisions about her life.

Also making this story problematic is Noor's family withholding the real facts about what happens in Iran to women, which means Lily has no understanding of the dangers of the place she’s living in.

As a coming-home, finding-oneself novel, it has some touching moments. But I think this book would have been greatly helped by developing more multi-dimensional characters beyond Noor and her daughter. Noor’s father, his old nanny, and the staff who work at the Café Leila, are never more than idealistic images of what we’d like our family to be. And while Noor whole-heartedly dives into the working life of the Café, we’re never given a sense of the day to day conflicts or challenges she experiences, other than the wrath of her daughter. Does Noor miss her nursing job, or her life in California? Is she bothered by the restrictions on her dress or never going outside her home? Is it difficult to re-establish a relationship with the father she hasn’t seen in decades? There is one really compelling moment where Noor's father tries to explain why he wants Noor and Lily to go back to the U.S., but then the issues raised in that moment are completely ignored.

In the end, I was hoping this book would wrestle with these issues in a more thoughtful way, but I was disappointed. I realize I’m bringing my Western, white sensibility to reading this book, but I was deeply troubled by what Noor, her mother, and her daughter experience. Instead of nuance and historical context, Bijan paints two extreme pictures of Iran – one of a close, loving family and a rich culture, and the other of a regime that governs by oppression, fear, and misogyny. While Noor comes to reconcile those two extremes, she never helps me, the reader, to do that as well.

Note: I received an advanced copy of this novel from NetGalley and publisher Algonquin Books. This book was published April 18, 2017.

I enjoy books which illuminate other cultures so I really looked forward to reading this book. Though it does indeed provide details about Iranian culture, it does so in a narrative that I can only describe as awkward and unsophisticated.

Noor, recently divorced, returns to Iran after a 30-year absence to visit her aging father Zod. Noor is accompanied by her recalcitrant teenaged daughter Lily. In Tehran, Zod continues to run a restaurant, Café Leila, which is a neighbourhood gathering place started years earlier by his parents. Noor is returning home but Lily has difficulty adjusting to life in Iran.

There are numerous flashbacks. The reader learns about the emigration of Zod’s parents from Russia; Iran’s studies in Paris and his marriage to Pari; Pari’s death; Noor’s life in California and her marriage and divorce. There are even flashbacks describing the lives of the employees at the café.

The story is narrated from multiple perspectives: Zod, Pari, Noor, Lily, Lily’s father, Noor’s brother, Zod’s estranged brother, Zod’s sister-in-law, the café’s errand boy, etc. The author obviously wanted to create well-rounded characters, but the effect is a lack of focus.

The impression is that the author didn’t know whom to focus on so she put a spotlight on everyone. For example, it is not necessary to go on and on about Karim’s becoming besotted with Lily. We are told that he can’t stop staring at her and that he can’t concentrate at school and that he keeps repeating her name to himself and that he gets her a kitten and that he will do anything for her and . . . Karim is a minor character and there seems little purpose to being repeatedly told that he is in love with Lily. For all the references to him, Karim remains a flat character.

Zod is a major character but he is not believable. He is just too good to be true. He cares about everyone, is wise, is unfailingly optimistic, and is loved by everyone. He is given the homage “never seen but for martyrs and mullahs”?! His behaviour, however, is inconsistent. He tells his daughter to visit him and to bring Lily with her: “Pack a bag for you and Lily and come visit your old father” but then he scolds her: “You brought Lily into danger and discomfort . . .” He even asks, “What lesson did Noor aim to teach by bringing her here?”

There is much telling and little showing in the book. Noor is supposed to be a dynamic character who grows, but we are only told that she grows. We are given a thorough description of her flaws: “Blinded by her troubles, unable to raise her head, to exert herself, clinging to the exaggerated memories of her youth. When had this girl, who defied them in childhood, who never got her way fast enough, grown timid and undemanding, so frustratingly passive in the face of humiliation? Why did she think herself so undeserving of love, merely enduring life like a pebble in her shoe and side stepping people’s shortcomings, talking as though she had caused Nelson’s infidelity – a watchfulness grown inward, doubtful and wary of her own child even.” Her parenting is thoroughly criticized: “For too long Noor had auditioned for motherhood, fun mom one day to authoritarian the next, careening from affectionate to cool, indulgent to critical, hands-off to hovering, and if Nelson was the arbiter, the easygoing dad, there to keep the peace and make their meals festive, it only heightened the pitch of her pendulum. It was exhausting being Noor, but she meant well. She always had meant well.”

Then we are told that Noor’s “reaching out to Nelson, recognizing she couldn’t sway Lily without him, was a big step for her” and “Noor eventually came to learn that we see what we want to see.” We don’t see her learning these lessons; we are told she has these insights. Noor’s only observation about her own behaviour is that she has taught her daughter to be afraid: “’all I’ve ever done is show you how to be afraid.’” Of course Lily’s behaviour with Karim does not seem like that of someone who is afraid. Her father, in fact, loves her because “she could not be depended upon to comply with form. Her bold, brutal honesty was what he admired.” And Noor’s decision at the end suggests she is still auditioning for motherhood so there is little growth in her character.

One of the major techniques of showing is dialogue. This novel has little dialogue and certainly no extended conversations that would reveal character. The dialogue that is included seems to serve little purpose. For instance, a discussion about the ingredients in piroshkies is hardly revealing; Noor asks her father, “’Didn’t you used to put cream in the spinach filling?’” and Zod answers, “’Mm. And sometimes hard-boiled eggs.’”

There are intrusive statements and comments throughout. In case the reader wouldn’t realize it, he/she is told “Neither Lily nor Karim could be expected to understand a world where such things were possible, that an innocent girl would be burned alive for refusing a ludicrous marriage proposal.” The narrator even addresses the reader: “Maybe if you’ve lived as long as he had, you knew all too well that looking for blame was futile, that you need not go back and ask for explanations.” And the tone can be downright preachy: “Because if our parents didn’t exalt us, we spend our adult lives blaming them – for not doing this, and not doing that, not being ‘supportive,’ not making an appearance at our first recital, being overprotective or aloof, damaging our self-esteem. Yet at our best or worst, who sees everything? Who knows us best? Who waits and waits to see what we yet may be? Then one day they’re gone and it’s just you, and there’s nothing left to squeeze, no one to blame for the dismay over the course your life has taken.”

As I mentioned at the beginning, I love books that highlight other cultures. The problem with this book is that it sounds like an essay at times: “The cuisine of Northern Iran, overlooked and underrated, is unlike most Persian food in that it’s as unfussy and lighthearted as the people from that region.” And “It’s customary in Iran for a family member to wash the body of the deceased; there are no undertakers and no viewings, burial is swift.” We are told that Noor’s sister-in-law “was incapable of tarof (a custom of self-deference exclusive to Iranians)” and then the reader is given several examples of her lack of decorum. Since this sister-in-law never appears in the novel, is the purpose of this paragraph just to discuss an Iranian custom? And the descriptions of food go on and on: “He filled the pockets not just with beef and onions, but peach jam, saffron rice pudding, smoked sturgeon, potatoes and dill, cabbage and caraway apples, duck confit and chopped orange peel . . .”

The author has included some Farsi to add local colour but, again, the translations are awkwardly inserted in parentheses immediately afterwards: “’Agha (Mr.) Nejad, how are you feeling?’” A reader shouldn’t have to be told that tarof means self-deference when the subsequent sentence (“She spoke frankly and without decorum”) indicates its meaning. And would a person actually use a conjunction, and only a conjunction, in another language: “’It’s been a good adventure for her, and you, pero
(but) –‘” When Lily asks Karim, who speaks little or no English, “’How do you say brother?’” he understands her question and immediately replies, “’Baradar’”?

I fear I have been rather harsh in my review, but I honestly find little to recommend this book. I read an eARC so perhaps changes will be made.

Note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.

Cafe Leila in Tehran is at the center of a powerful story of love, food, family, and friendship set against the backdrop of Iran.

4.5 stars

WOW is the best word I can use to describe The Last Days of Café Leila. I absolutely loved the book all the way up until the end. The ending made me very sad and while I am not sure how it could have ended differently, I wish it had. I cannot say anymore without spoiling it so I will leave it at that. The rest of the book is absolutely perfect.

My emotions ran the full gamut while reading this book: intense joy, intense sadness, horror, embarrassment, disbelief, and fascination. When I began reading, I quickly realized how little I knew about Iran, both present day and the 20th century events that led up to present day. My brief knowledge covered the Iran hostage crisis, the Iran-Iraq conflicts, and the Iran revolution in 1979. While I knew Iran was ruled by a conservative Islamic government, I had no idea how conservative and restrictive the government actually is. Bijan effectively conveys what life is like for those still living there (many have sent their children abroad and often emigrated themselves) and the great loss of freedom and culture that is experienced for those remaining. I truly cannot imagine living under those conditions especially as a woman but even as a man with music, dancing, and access to other cultures banned by the Islamic Republic. Moreover, Bijan portrays the sadness felt by those who lived in Iran prior to the revolution and truly mourn how much was lost when the Islamic Republic came into power. Living in the United States, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that many do not live with the freedoms we take for granted. I felt this sentiment time and time again while I was reading this book.

Donia Bijan’s writing is magical and beautifully lyrical. I was transported to Tehran and particularly Café Leila, frequently feeling like I could visualize the café and its environs along with the Persian meals and foliage. I loved learning about Persian food and customs and the manner in which residents did their best to adhere to and keep alive traditions that have been banned for so many years. Bijan’s characters are lovingly crafted. Zod is one of the greatest characters I have encountered in fiction in a long while. He will stay with me for quite a long time and hopefully I absorbed some of his parenting style.

I am so thankful that I read this book and wish it could be required reading for everyone at this time in the United States when tolerance of others and their cultures is sometimes sadly lacking. Knowledge leads to understanding and empathy (which is exactly why these conservative regimes ban so many things). I cannot wait to read Donia Bijan’s next novel and am so glad I read this one. Make sure you have tissues nearby – certain sections are nothing short of heartbreaking. Thanks to Algonquin and NetGalley for the chance to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Last Days of Café Leila is one of those stories that pluck at your heart strings and captivate your senses. Donia Bijan writes about a loving family that finds its way to love from generation to generation, through the tragedies of revolution and the reluctant diaspora of emigration. The focus of the story is Noor who grew up at Café Leila in Tehran but who was sent to America by her father, Zod, when she graduated high school. Zod sent both his children, hoping to protect them from the excesses of the Iranian theocracy.

Noor has been married twenty years when she discovers her husband, Nelson, has been cheating on her. She leaves him. Zod invites her to come back to Tehran for a few weeks hoping to heal her heart. She takes her reluctant and resentful daughter Lily with her.

Café Leila is a magical place. Founded by Zod’s Russian immigrant parents Yanik and Nina back in the 1930s, it was a center of hospitality and celebration. The story carries us through their early years, the tragic death of their oldest son that brought Zod back to Tehran from his University studies in Paris to marry Pari, his brother’s fiancée, a happy marriage that perhaps made Noor overly-optimistic about her own.

This family is open-hearted and full of life and they draw people in, they take people in, creating an extended family of friends, of employees who are more like family, and even strangers who need shelter. A lot happens during Noor’s visit back to Tehran, some of it delightful, some of it dangerous and frightening, and it changes Noor…you might say she comes of age.
I loved The Last Days of Café Leila though I cried more than I like. I loved the people of the Café, this huge, informal family that kept true to the spirit of hospitality and family through hardship, loss, and separation. I enjoyed the book and want the author to write a cookbook. The author has written a memoir with recipes, but I want lots of recipes and pictures because this book made me hungry. The descriptions of cooking and food are everywhere, rich and evocative and worth drooling over. She creates such a complete and living picture of Café Leila I will be disappointed if there is no such cafe somewhere in Tehran.

Any family saga covering multiple generations will have a mix of grief and joy. Most of the time, the grief is balanced by love, though the tragic death of Pari, Noor’s mother, can never be balanced, only endured. She and Zod were magnificent and her death broke something in Noor that was only truly mended more than thirty years later when she returned. While The Last Days of Café Leila is sad at times, most of the time it is joyful and vibrant. It’s one of those books that would make a wonderful film that would be shot with with filmy lenses and bright sunlight, with beautiful music, and there would be roles for half the BBC Masterpiece Theater roster.

The Last Days of Café Leila will be published April 18th. I received an advance e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Donia Bijan's prose pulls readers behind the veil and headlines of contemporary Tehran creating a love letter to a place where the author lived as a child. Themes of displacement and exile thread through the novel. Another strong theme is how marriages and family relationships are complicated, flexible, and negotiable. I appreciate being pulled into Persia, a world of great beauty and tradition, where ordinary people endure extraordinary circumstances. In this novel, Noor, who was sent to the states as a teen, returns to Tehran suffering from a broken heart and also to be with her father, Zod, the patriarch/proprietor of an elegant restaurant. The cast of characters is vivid and well-wrought, including Noor's rebellious teen daughter, Lily, and her childhood nanny, Naneh Goli. Flashbacks to the past uncover secrets about Noor's mother, Pari, who died mysteriously when Noor was a child. Layered through this emotional family epic is a narrative of politics, and the ways that revolution and repressive regimes twist human rights and push many people to scatter in diaspora. Fortunately culture endures, through fiction, yes, and also through manners, traditions, language, and delicious recipes passed through generations. Highly recommended to readers who want to understand the nuances of life in contemporary Iran, and those who once lived there, but now create new lives in exile.

Set in a post-revolutionary Iran in the city of Tehran, The Last Days of Café is a story that is told across time and through three generations of a family through the use of flashbacks and character recollections with the titular cafe being the one stable presence throughout.

The prose throughout this book was incredibly beautiful as evident from the descriptions of Iran and all the food that was being prepared. The authour’s background in the culinary arts truly shone in this book as all the food description made my mouth water on top of making me wish that there was an actual Café Lelia that I could visit as I would love to visit Iran if such a place as Café Lelia existed there,

Another thing I enjoyed about this book was just how powerful it was. I love the fact that it was a story of a family falling apart and eventually coming together in addition to being a story of great loss and perhaps greater love, and not just the romantic type. My heart truly broke as I read about what actually happened to Noor’s mother and how Zod had kept the truth to himself for all these years in order to protect his children.

A poignant and emotionally powerful tale, The Last Days of Café Leila is a book that caused me to stop and think about appreciate the family I have. It also taught me so much about the immigrant and the student experience in the USA and the history of Iran and how its history shaped the country it is today. Definitely recommended for those who enjoy rich family sagas and books that feature food.

Moving and enlightenng tale of a family going through extremely difficult times. The writing was stunning.

perfect reading experience- so looking forward to whatever the writer does next- her restaurant in Palo Alto was the best ever!!