The Last Days of Café Leila by Donia Bijan

“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 Café Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations. 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.

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. And together, she and Lily get swept up in the beauty and brutality of Tehran.

Bijan’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.

292 pages (April 2017)

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Reading Guide from BookMovement.

 

The Best Book Club Questions to Spark Discussion from The Oprah Magazine

 

To find a discussion guide for this book in the NoveList Plus database, go to the Library's website, click on Novelist under "We Recommend" → "Book Services". Click on "Book Discussion Guides" in the right sidebar on NoveList's home page. Then, either enter the title in the Search box or search for the title alphabetically. (You will need your Salt Lake County Library card number to access this resource outside a county library.)

 

The Last Days of Café Leila at goodreads

 

Review at AV Club

Review from BookPage

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Review from Kirkus Reviews

Review at Seattle Book Review

 

Author Website

 

"A Conversation with Donia Bijan" from Huffpost 

"Q&A with Donia Bijan" at BookDragon (Smithsonian)

 

Donia Bijan discusses The Last Days of Cafe Leila at Live! from the Library (Walnut Creek Library Foundation):

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