Yasmin Crowther, Saffron Kitchen

Saffron Kitchen

Yasmin Crowther

Viking, Jan 2007, $23.95

ISBN: 0670038113

In London, Iranian expatriate Maryam hits her nephew Saeed who lives with her and her husband Edward since his mother died. Saeed runs away to avoid a beating, but Maryam's pregnant daughter Sara chases him and then miscarries. While Sara despondently recuperates in the hospital, Maryam, feeling guilty, runs away to the village in Iran where as a child she spent the happiest moments of her life.

Maryam looks back to the moment everything changed for her. She and her two sisters enjoyed an upper class lifestyle due to their father being a General, loyal to the newly installed Shah. Her sire hired a tutor, Ali, whose teachings included Arnold's "Dover Beach", which led to the teen dreaming of far away places. However, her strict father caught her and Ali committing an unacceptable though innocent transgression; he threw her out. Maryam became a nurse, moved to Arnold's England, married kindhearted Edward, had a daughter while pining for her Ali, until she finally left behind those who cared about her.

This is a wonderful, character-driven, mid-twentieth-century clash of cultures. Edward is a stiff-upper-lip Englishman who knows his wife will never return to him; Sara cannot comprehend her mother's soul-searching yearning for what she lost three decades earlier; finally Maryam is enigmatic with her need to go home even though her memories are no longer there. Though her desires are not fully understandable as a longing is different than a doing, fans will appreciate this deep look at a woman pulled by two cultures.

Harriet Klausner