The Saffron Kitchen

Crowther, Yasmin

ISBN 10: 0143141821 ISBN 13: 9780143141822

Publisher: Penguin Audio, 2006

Synopsis

When her troubled past violently resurfaces with tragic consequences for her pregnant daughter, Maryam Mazar departs for the remote Iranian village of her youth, where she learns the price her own mother paid to secure her freedom. A first novel.

About this title

Review

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

About the Author

Yasmin Crowther is an Iranian-English sustainability consultant and author. She provides counsel to high-profile clients—Microsoft, Shell, and BP, to name a few—on corporate responsibility, sustainable development, and brand strategy. The Saffron Kitchen is her debut novel.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin Audio
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0143141821
• ISBN 13: 9780143141822
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English