Sirine’s kebabs and saffron rice become shorthand for feelings that are far too complex and significant to be expressed in words. They become a family of sorts, bonding over bowls of hummus and the dire news they read in their day-old Iraqi newspapers.Īn ode to storytelling and family, this novel weaves an Arabic fairy tale and Middle Eastern food into the narrative in a way that’s reminiscent of Like Water for Chocolate. In Crescent, students and professors from UCLA, far from their homelands, find comfort and community at Nadia’s Café where Sirine is the cook. IRL, the area is dotted with signs written in Farsi and infused with the aroma of cumin and cinnamon. Most of the action in this poignant love story plays out in a family-owned Lebanese restaurant in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles known as Tehrangeles. When the real world of politics intervenes in their new love, they both must face the past and a dangerously uncertain future. When she meets Han, an Iraqi literature professor in exile from his home country, she allows herself to fall joyously, recklessly in love.Īs Sirine and Han’s intimacy grows, she begins to explore her Iraqi identity as he grapples with the memories of the places and people he left behind. Our heroine Sirine is an Iraqi-American chef with blonde hair, green eyes, and a heart she’s kept carefully tucked away from harm.
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May 2023
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