Oh, this one is so hard! Like I said on Day 1, I have several favorite books, but can never pick just one absolute favorite!!! The one I’m choosing for this post is a little known book that needs to be a well-known book. And I love, love, love this novel.
The Saffron Kitchen by Yasmin Crowther.
I love multicultural stories, and this is a lovely one. Sara is an Iranian/British woman who recently suffered a miscarriage when her mother, Maryam, leaves Sara’s father to go back to visit her native Iran. Maryam has a rich, secretive history that Sara knows nothing about. When Maryam arrives in Iran, all the memories – good and bad – come rushing back. Her abusive father. The smells of the kitchen she grew up in. The upheaval of the revolution. Her teenage love, Ali – Ali, who remained in Iran and became a teacher. Who never married.
As Maryam’s story unravels, you come to understand the depth of this woman’s character – and why she needed to leave London to come home for a while. Eventually Sara joins her mother in Iran, also, and discovers the truth about her mom’s past, which brings her and her mother together in a new way.
This book is about exile, and culture, and love. It will make you cry. It will make you hope.
What is your favorite adult fiction book?
Here’s Karla’s pick for today.
I think my favorite would have to be Memoirs of a Geisha or Girl with a Pearl Earring. Those are both old, but I read mostly YA fiction now!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
A joy to read and I may read it again now that I’ve thought of it, thanks Karissa!
(If anyone has not read or heard of this book, go to the Amazon site and I think the comments are accurate for the novel.)