The Saffron Kitchen - by Yasmin Crowther (Paperback)

About the Book

After Maryam Mazars dark secrets and troubled past surface, she feels compelled to leave the comfort of her home and return to her native remote Iranian village. When Maryams daughter finally goes to Iran, she begins to see the world that has haunted her mother for half a century.

Book Synopsis

In a powerful debut novel that moves between the crowded streets of London and the desolate mountains of Iran, Yasmin Crowther paints a stirring portrait of a family shaken by events from decades ago and worlds away. On a rainy day in London the dark secrets and troubled past of Maryam Mazar surface violently, with tragic consequences for her daughter, Sara, and her newly orphaned nephew. Maryam leaves her English husband and family and returns to the remote Iranian village where her story began. In a quest to piece their life back together, Sara follows her mother and finally learns the terrible price Maryam once had to pay for her freedom, and of the love she left behind. Set against the breathtaking beauty of two very different places, this stunning family drama transcends culture and is, at its core, a rich and haunting narrative about mothers and daughters.

Review Quotes

"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

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.