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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Viking Adult
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 272
Printing Date: December 28, 2006
Publishing house: Viking Adult
Release Date: December 28, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 47505
Studio: Viking Adult
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
A passionate and timely debut about mothers and daughters, roots and exile, from the streets of Iran to the suburbs of London
In what is certain to be one of the most talked-about fiction debuts of the year, Yasmin Crowther paints a magnificent portrait of betrayal and retribution set against a backdrop of Iran’s tumultuous history, dramatic landscapes, and cultural beauty. The story begins on a blustery day in London, when Maryam Mazar’s dark secrets and troubled past surface violently with tragic consequences for her pregnant daughter, Sara. Burdened by guilt, Maryam leaves her comfortable English home for the remote village in Iran where she was raised and disowned by her father. When Sara decides to follow her she learns the price that her mother had to pay for her freedom and of the love she left behind.
Poetic, haunting, and brilliantly crafted, The Saffron Kitchen is sure to entrance fans of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake and Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club.
Amazon.com:
In The Saffron Kitchen, Yasmin Crowther has captured, with uncanny accuracy and grace, the deep confusion and conflict visited upon a mother and her daughter by their respective histories. The mother, Maryam, is an Iranian woman, daughter of a general and member of a well-respected family during the Shah's reign. When she became separated from her family at the start of the revolution and was sheltered chastely overnight by Ali, her father's servant, her life was forever changed. Disowned by her father, she moves to Tehran to become a nurse and then to London, where she meets and marries Edward, a fine and gentle man who adores her. When the story begins, their daughter, Sara, born in England, married to an Englishman, and ignorant of her mother's haunted history, is newly pregnant. When she miscarries, during a dramatic confrontation with her mother and her young Iranian cousin, years of secrets and pretending unravel at last.
Maryam decides to go to Iran, to distance herself from these events. What follows, in Crowther's revelatory manner, is a perfect portrayal of a half-life, one lived only on the surface. Maryam comes into her own when she goes back to her village; the sights, sounds, and smells all beckon to her with their sweet familiarity. England falls away, with all its confusing customs and strange language, as does Edward, with his so very different background. Beckoned by her mother, Sara comes to visit and to ferret out the particulars of her mother's past. The question remains: will Maryam return to Edward and England or stay where she is once again at home?
Crowther writes with great insight about attempting to cast off one's past--and the impossibility of doing so. The saffron kitchen of the title is a lovely evocation, both symbolic and actual, of what gets left behind and of one daughter's willingness to occupy both worlds. --Valerie Ryan
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Rated by buyers 
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I loved this book almost from page one. The writing was spell binding and the characters were engaging and not at all predictable. But what I will say subsequent is that by the end of the book I ended up not liking the main character, Maryam Mazar, even if I did sympathized with her on some level. I felt that she was selfish in her final decision and that she thought more about herself than about the people who loved her. Maryam Mazar is a woman who at the inception of the story is a sixty something lady. She lives in London now but her country of origin and birth is Iran. Through some circumstances, she is forced to leave home and settle in London where she meets a wonderful man and has a lovely daughter. In the beginning of the book, there is a tragedy that sends Maryam reeling and she seeks out her home in Iran, retreating from the misery that unfolds in London. I cannot delve much more into the particulars of what happens but here is where I found her decisions hard to stomach. She makes a choice that to me was very selfish and somewhat immature. Why would you leave behind all the love and care that your husband and daughter have showered you with for a life that you have not known for more than forty something years? By the time she goes back most of the people that were key actors in her life in Iran are dead and only a few important ones remain. She discards her present happiness for a past that she has somewhat eulogized in her mind and in my opinion was not totally deserving of its praises. I totally understand that because of the way in which she was forced to leave Iran, she never made peace with certain aspects of her life but I believe that we can make choices as to who we love and the importance that that love will hold in our lives. What happened to her was a travesty as she was punished for independence and being a young woman far ahead of her time, born in the wrong country for an out spoken woman. But as much as my heart hurt for her past pains, I could not reconcile her heartlessness in her decision making. Not since McEwan's Atonement have I been so angry with a character and I know that there were legions of people who wanted to give McEwan a piece of their mind for that ending. For me such endings (when well done) actually makes me applaud cause there are not many books that can get your so invested that you get so emotional at the end. A total recommend.
Rated by buyers 
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If I were still in academia, I'd start a program in ex-pat Iranian literature. I'm totally intrigued with how the writers, including Crowther, manage to capture a world through sounds, smells, sights and texture, as opposed to a the way James and others catured the world through manners - the way a cane was held, a handkerchief dropped, etc. Kudos to this writer. It may be a bit of a "woman's" story, but the book is magical.
Rated by buyers 
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For me personally, this book is written so badly that I could not finish it. The author tries too hard to sound elegant and it fails miserably.
I always try to finish books to give them a chance. This however I could not do with this paperback. Although it was the only book I made the mistake to take on a foreign vacation (could not buy other English reading material), I could not continue reading it. Too many metaphors that were useless and not only did not add, but took away from the story. You can not help but be so focused on the writting that you never get a chance to immerse yourself in the story.
Rated by buyers 
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I think that the author has to be more careful with the timeline of the story. When one sees some flaws in the story,he/she feels cheated.I don't think it's a good and well-written story.
Rated by buyers -
This novel is about the struggles that an Iranian girl faces as she goes through different stages of her life. However, in most novels, the main character goes through a journey where he/she emerges as a strong individual at the end. The book is a strange mix of `tragedy' and `they lived happily ever after'. From my perspective, I read about an Irani girl who was raised within the protection of her father, living a lavish life only possible for the wealthy. However, as soon as the girl faces some real life challenges she is not able to cope with the situation. Her entire life is composed of running away from situations that she cannot deal with or comprehend. There is no pleasure in reading this book, there is no great journey, and there is definitely no message other than "run away from your problems."
Furthermore, if you are interested in learning about the Irani culture, this is not the right book. The book represents a rather small sect of the Irani society. It is as if you journey to a small town in the middle of nowhere to learn about America.
I do not recommend this book.
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