Publishers Weekly
Maryam is the willful daughter of an Iranian general who backed the Shah of Iran during the (U.S.-backed) 1953 coup that toppled Iran's prime minister, Mossadegh. In the midst of the turmoil, and with the threat of an arranged marriage hanging over her, Maryam is sheltered one night by her father's trusted assistant, Ali, a young man near her age 16 for whom she feels a shy attraction. And though still a virgin the next morning, their feelings for each other are clear. Maryam is sent away by her aloof father ("she is no daughter of mine"), a painful memory that, decades later, shatters her settled marriage to an understanding if pained British husband, and bewilders and angers her own daughter. A 40-year separation from Ali and a tender reunion in a remote village are just a few turns of the intense plot, full of tragic coilings and romantic passion, that make this a wonderfully intricate debut novel. Crowther, daughter of a British father and an Iranian mother, powerfully depicts Maryam's wrenching romantic and nationalistic longings, exploring the potency of heritage and the pain of exile. (Jan. 2) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Crowther's uneven debut, split between London and Iran, traces the journey a mother and daughter make to close the distance between their lives. A tragic accident begins the tale, unraveling life-as-usual for Maryam and her daughter Sara. When Maryam hits her nephew Saeed (who, following the death of his mother in Iran, now lives in London with Maryam and husband Edward), she sends the frightened boy running to a bridge. Sara chases him, and in the struggle, miscarries her child. Before Sara even leaves the hospital, Maryam is off to Iran, guilty, disconsolate, unable to sustain the fragile patchwork of her past and present. Back in Iran, in the rural village where she spent idyllic summers, she reflects on the troubled year that the Shah was returned to power and she was banished from home. With her father, a wealthy general, high-spirited Maryam and her two sisters live a privileged life. She even has an English tutor, young Ali, who is teaching her Matthew Arnold's classic poem, "Dover Beach." Her nanny Fatima binds her breasts to keep her seemingly girlish, but her father is considering marriage for her while Maryam dreams of travel and a life away from her father's restrictions. An unavoidable and innocent indiscretion with Ali dishonors her father, who then disowns her. Maryam becomes a nurse, goes to England and marries sweet Edward, while she recites "Dover Beach" to the sea, hoping her voice will reach Ali. While Maryam indulges in her reveries and reconnects with Ali, Sara and Edward attempt to get on with life in England. Edward has given up, believing Maryam will never return-in fact, was never really his-and Sara, now caring for Saeed, tries to understand why a lost childhoodin Iran is more vital to her mother than the ensuing 30 years in England with the family she created. Indeed, it is a question readers will ask-and that Sara poses when she eventually travels to Iran-but one that Maryam is unable to adequately answer. Though Crowther builds an evocative portrait of Iran and the painful pull of two cultures, too much of the novel hinges on an overly enigmatic character and her vague longing for the indefinable idea of home. Agent: Toby Eady/Toby Eady Associates
From the Publisher
"Beautiful . . . A heartfelt story about unbreakable family bonds."
-Entertainment Weekly
"A wonderfully intricate debut novel . . . exploring the potency of heritage and the pain of exile."
-Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The Saffron Kitchen has a dreamlike quality that gradually draws in and washes over a reader."
-USA Today
"A fine novel of cultural and generational tension."
-Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"A moving look at the plight of the immigrant torn between two homes."
-The Christian Science Monitor
"With richly descriptive language evoking the riotous streets of Iran to the comfortable London suburbs, Crowther's well-crafted narrative will keep readers eagerly turning the pages of this poetic debut about mothers and daughters."
-PAGES
"Crowther's debut is spellbinding, and her cross-cultural perception and empathy are illuminating and affecting."
-Booklist
"An unusual and satisfying read."
-The Guardian, London
"A book about edges . . . where unconscious drives become seemingly rational decisions; and where different cultural values confront each other . . . Crowther [is] a novelist of exceptional honesty and grace."
-The Sunday Telegraph, London
JUN/JUL 07 - AudioFile
When I humiliated my father, he humiliated me. It made me strong,” Maryam tells her daughter in Crowther’s first novel. The author and her daughter, who narrates half of this work, share an Iranian-British heritage. Together author and narrators lead listeners into a world difficult for a child to understand. Using dual narrators works well. Mehr Mansuri adopts a deep, flat tone for Maryam, who accepts whatever must happen next. In Ariana Fraval’s voice we hear the excitement, fear, and confusion of a young person. This is a woman’s story of living in a man’s world—of breasts bound to keep a child young, of living with second and third wives, of pregnancy, and of violation. These might be strange customs from half-a-world away, but the voices are strangely familiar. R.R. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
