Crescent - Softcover

Abu Jaber, Diana

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330413279 ISBN 13: 9780330413275

Publisher: Picador, 2004

Synopsis

Sirine is thirty-nine and a breathtaking golden-haired beauty. Half-Iraqi and half-American, she was raised in Los Angeles by her Iraqi-born uncle -- a professor at the local university and an endless source of fabulous tales of jinns, sheiks and Bedouins -- after her aid-worker parents were killed in Africa. An exquisitely gifted cook at Cafe Nadia, where homesick Middle Eastern ex-pats collect to drink coffee and savour her perfectly spiced food, Sirine is loved by all. She has, however, never been in love herself, and it is her uncle's dearest wish that she will fall for dashing new college professor, Hanif Al Eyad, a political exile from Baghdad. The two meet at Cafe Nadia and from the start their relationship is steeped in the scents, flavours and textures of Sirine's cooking. But Sirine is not convinced that they have the right ingredients for a life of happy-ever-after; in particular, she worries that she is too American for Hanif.

In this rich, poignant and tender novel, Diana Abu-Jaber has created unforgettable characters and a compelling story of what it means to be an Iraqi living -- and loving -- in America.

'Love, lust and Lebanese cooking commingle to create a deliciously romantic romp about l'amour and the quest for identity' VANITY FAIR

About this title

Review:

It's a positive relief to read a novel that treats Iraqis as real people. Diana Abu-Jaber's second novel, Crescent, is set in Los Angeles and peopled by immigrants and Iraqi-Americans. Thirty-nine-year-old half-Arab Sirine is a chef in a Lebanese restaurant. Her uncle works at the university with Han, an Iraqi-born academic who begins frequenting Sirine's restaurant, drawn by her beauty and her exquisite cooking.

Part of the book's charm is in its determination to impart the sheer glamour of Arabia, here personified in Han's face: "Sirine watches Han and for a moment it seems that she can actually see the ancient traces in Han's face, the quality of his gaze that seems to originate from a thousand-thousand years of watching the horizon--a forlorn, beautiful gazing, rich and more seductive than anything she has ever seen."

Also, the book addresses head-on the one-dimensional view Americans possess of Iraq. "I used to read about Baghdad in Arabian Nights", says one American character. "It was all about magic and adventurers. I thought that's what it was like there. And when I got older Baghdad turned into the stuff about war and bombs--the place on the TV set. I never thought about there being any kind of normal life there."

As she falls more deeply in love with Han, Sirine discovers that part of being Iraqi now means learning to live with not knowing: not knowing where people have disappeared to, not knowing if your family is alive or dead. In the book's thrilling romantic denouement, these lessons come perilously close to Sirine's Los Angeles home. Crescent brings alive a vibrant community of exiled academics, immigrants on the make and optimistic souls looking for love. --Claire Dederer, Amazon.com

Review:

"A book written by an author who never for an instant relinquished her grip on this willingly enchanted reader."

Starred Review. Abu-Jaber's language is miraculous....It is not possible to stop reading.

A deliciously romantic romp.

A pleasing hybrid of "Like Water for Chocolate" and "Haroun and the Sea of Stories."

[A] beautifully imagined and timely novel.

Exquisite...Readers stuffed on headlines but still hungering for something relevant will enjoy this rich meal.

An impressive second outing by Abu-Jaber.

Radiant, wise and passionate...a book written by an author who never for an instant relinquished her grip on this willingly enchanted reader. --Beth Kephart

Lush, poignant, and searing...unfolds with all the startling beauty of a hidden garden. --Connie May Fowler

Abu-Jaber affirms the precious fragility of life, love, family, and the human community in meaningful ways. --Sena Jeter Naslund

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0330413279
• ISBN 13: 9780330413275
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352