This is the sequel to Pomegrante Soup: A Novel by the same author. If you haven't read the previous book, you might be somewhat lost following this book. I loved Pomegrante Soup for its story and the delicious Persian recipes.
Rosewater and Soda Bread is very good, but I love the first book better. At times, this second book gets lost with too many characters and competing storylines. Rosewater is similar to books like Chocolat, Like Water For Chocolate, Baker's Apprentice. Food and the love of food are big themese in all these books. When Rosewater and Soda Bread opens, Marjan and her two sisters who fled the Shah's Iran, have been running the Babylon Cafe for a year in a small town in Ireland. For the most part, they've been accepted by the villagers although several busybodies are still determined to get them out. Much of the story revolves around the beloved Estelle Delmonico, a friend to the Iranian sisters, and the young woman Estelle finds washed up on the beach, nearly naked and injured, and mute. Overall, this is a cozy book full of tempting descriptions of Persian food. It's a very tame, family-friendly book that can be read by a grandma or teen.
Rosewater and Soda Bread is very good, but I love the first book better. At times, this second book gets lost with too many characters and competing storylines. Rosewater is similar to books like Chocolat, Like Water For Chocolate, Baker's Apprentice. Food and the love of food are big themese in all these books. When Rosewater and Soda Bread opens, Marjan and her two sisters who fled the Shah's Iran, have been running the Babylon Cafe for a year in a small town in Ireland. For the most part, they've been accepted by the villagers although several busybodies are still determined to get them out. Much of the story revolves around the beloved Estelle Delmonico, a friend to the Iranian sisters, and the young woman Estelle finds washed up on the beach, nearly naked and injured, and mute. Overall, this is a cozy book full of tempting descriptions of Persian food. It's a very tame, family-friendly book that can be read by a grandma or teen.
