Saffron Kitchen

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Average customer rating 4.6 (5 comments)

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It is amazing how much feeling, history, variety of viewpoints, and information about cultures and environments can be put into one small book. A very touching, painful, happy, story about how people are affected by their childhoods, parents, and events beyond all their control; the kinds of lives they live; and the choices they make. The ending is one of those where, depending on your viewpoint and how you hope it ends, is either satisfying or frustrating, and is an example of how sometimes we must just choose for ourselves, because no matter how we choose, someone will think it is wrong, and others that it is right. This is an intriguing story about relationships between mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, lovers, wives and husbands, women and men, and people from two different countries, in this case, Britain and Iran, and the children of intermarriages between these people.

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This is an astonishing little book that takes you into the lives and minds of people who still live in relatively primitive villages in Iran and of a woman who came from Iran to England, married a white man, had a biracial British daughter, and when the daughter is grown, goes back to Iran to visit her home village and reconnect with her roots. It explores the mother's personal history in Iran and that has caused her pain and distance from her husband and daughter in her new life, and the daughter's anguish and resolution in her relationship with her mother; both sides are conveyed convincingly and insight-fully, as are the stories of the other characters. It is an emotional, insightful, compassionate, sad, tragic, happy, and hopeful story with a truly nonjudgmental ending that is either predictable or not, depending on how you read it and how you want it to turn out. There is enough romantic tension to make you want to keep reading and find out; of the two possible endings, either one could have been written successfully, and both would be plausible and possible, and neither would be perfect for everyone affected by it. So it is a story about making choices, as well as about a woman's right and need to live a life full of personal freedom value, respect, and safety. It gripped me right from the first words to the last ... very highly recommended.

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I originally picked this book because the cover was intriguing, and then, I read the synopsis on the flyleaf. It, too, was intriguing. I will admit that it was somewhat difficult to 'get into' this book, but, trust me, stick with it to the end. You definitely will be rewarded. The story has so many layers, and each layer contains such detail, that you will be enthralled. The author described the settings and tragedies with exquisite and sometimes horrifying detail. On the surface, the story is about a volatile mother-daughter relationship in a bi-cultural family. The secondary characters (husband/father, nephew, old friend from Iran) are also somewhat befuddled as to what will happen next. It is also a love story for the ages as well as a tale of what is and what could have been. Although the ending is somewhat ambiguous, the reader will feel hope that this family will somehow be made whole again. Overall, this was a great first-time read. It is definitely worth reading more than once to take in all the details.

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When Maryam Mazar leaves the safe quiet comfort of her London home to confront secrets of her troubled past on the riotous streets of Iran, she does not have a clue that her actions will result in tragic consequences for her pregnant daughter, Sara, and her orphaned nephew, Saeed. A notable well-crafted first novel about mothers & daughters!

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This book is a compelling story of the struggle one woman has to reconcile the past and present, her life in England with her years growing up in Iran. Yasmin Crowther provides westerners excellent insight into the traditions and family structure of her mother's country. It is at times tender, heartwrenching and hopeful.