Meet the author April 20 at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, and May 2 at Book Passage in San Francisco. Bijan, whose own family fled Iran in 1978, made her first return to the country in 2010 a chef who ran her own restaurant, L’Amie Donia in Palo Alto, she describes the dishes of Café Leila in delicious detail. As she confronts national history and family revelations, “The Last Days of Café Leila” delivers a moving portrait of a character caught between two worlds.
But Iran has changed since Noor left for America 30 years earlier. Arriving in Tehran with her teenaged daughter, Lily, she settles into a new life centered in her father’s neighborhood café. When Noor discovers that her husband has left her for another woman, she gathers what’s left of her San Francisco life and returns to her native Iran. “The Last Days of Café Leila” by Donia Bijan (Algonquin, $25.95, 304 pages)Ī betrayal sets Donia Bijan’s captivating new novel in motion. Fiction and memoirs, all with Bay Area connections, round out this month’s list of new releases. Donia Bijan starts her debut novel in San Francisco, then takes readers to her native Iran “Oakland Noir” captures hidden corners of its namesake city.
The Bay Area has a long history of supplying authors with memorable settings, but there’s an especially strong sense of place in these new releases by Bay Area authors.
0 kommentar(er)
