This is a fascinating and interesting look at relationships, love, responsibility, Iran, and personalities.

Zod's parents who where immigrants from Russia started Cafe Leila and when his father and brother died Zod took over running the restaurant-pouring his whole self into keeping it the excellent place it had been when his parents ran it. Noor dragged her sullen, pouting young teenage daughter silently kicking and screaming to Iran with her. Her dad, Zod, was dying, but he did not tell Noor until awhile after she arrived in Iran. When she begged to go home he absolutely refused to let her return until over 20 years later. When Noor was 17 her father sent her to the United States to live because he felt Iran was not a good place for children.

The focus is more on how the characters react to the changes brought on by the revolution, and the effect that the revolution and subsequent war with Iraq had on people's lives, even years afterwards. While the revolution is in the background, that's really not the focus of the story. Most of the story takes place within the grounds of Cafe Leila, a place that is mysteriously untouched by the outside world and serves as a refuge for those fleeing from it.

That being said, this is not a book about the revolution. Tragically, the revolution was hijacked by the fundamentalists-similar to the way the Russian Revolution got hijacked by the Bolsheviks-a sobering reminder that revolutions, no matter how well intentioned, frequently devolve into violence and a regime that can be even more oppressive than the one it was trying to replace. Nobody liked the Shah, who was corrupt (and supported by the U.S., BTW). What a lot of people don't realize is that the Iranian Revolution did not start out as a revolution by fundamentalists. This is a good book that gives you a feel for how Iran changed from before the revolution to after.

The last days of cafe leila review