Pomegranate Soup
Author: Marsha Mehran
Publisher: Random House (August 2, 2005)
ISBN-10: 1400062411
ISBN-13: 978-1400062416
A funny and heart-warming debut about three sisters, an old box of recipes and a new, exotic café in a small Irish town.
Beneath the holy mountain Croagh Patrick, in damp and lovely County Mayo, sits the small, sheltered village of Ballinacroagh. To the exotic Aminpour sisters, Ireland seems like a much-needed safe haven. It has been seven years since Marjan Aminpour fled Iran with her younger sisters, Bahar and Layla, and she hopes that in Ballinacroagh, a land of "crazed sheep and dizzying roads," they might finally find a home.
From the kitchen of an old pastry shop on Main Mall, the sisters set about creating a Persian oasis. Soon sensuous wafts of cardamom, cinnamon and saffron float through the streets - and exotic aroma that announces the opening of the Babylon Café, and a shock to a town that generally subsists on boiled cabbage and Guinness served at the local tavern. And it is an affront to the senses of Ballinacroagh's uncrowned king, Thomas McGuire. After trying to buy the old pastry shop for years and failing, Thomas is enraged to find it occupied - and by foreigners, no less.`
But the mysterious, spicy fragrances work their magic on the townsfolk, and soon, business is booming. Marjan is thrilled with the demand for her red lentil soup, abgusht stew and rosewater baklava - and with the transformation in her sisters. Young Layla finds first love, and even tense, haunted Bahar seems to be less nervous.
And in the stand-up-comedian-turned-priest Father Fergal Mahoney, the gentle, lonely widow Estelle Delmonico, and the headstrong hairdresser Fiona Athey, the sisters find a merry band of supporters against the close-minded opposition of less welcoming villagers stuck in their ways. But the idyll is soon broken when the past rushes back to threaten the Amnipours once more, and the lives they left back in revolution-era Iran bleed into the present.
Infused with the textures and scents, trials and triumphs of two distinct cultures, Pomegranate Soup is and infectious novel of magical realism. This richly detailed story, highlighted with delicious recipes, is a delectable journey into the heart of Persian cooking and Irish living.
* Includes eleven original Persian recipes
Readers' Guide & A Conversation with Marsha Mehran
Additional Resources
- A reading group guide to Pomegranate Soup is available on this site.
Click here to open A Readers' Guide & A Conversation with Marsha Mehran
- Want to start a reading group or book club, but don’t know where to start?
Click http://www.randomhouse.com/BB/read/ to begin the adventure!
- To get Marsha to visit with your reading group,
contact her at pomsoup@yahoo.com
All About Marsha
Born in Tehran, Marsha Mehran escaped the upheaval of the Iranian revolution with her family.
She grew up in the United States, Australia and Argentina, where her parents operated a Middle Eastern café.
She lives in both Brooklyn and Ireland and is at work on her third novel.
The sequel to Pomegranate Soup, Rosewater and Soda Bread, [was published May 13,] 2008.
Rosewater and Soda Bread
More than a year has passed since Marjan, Bahar, and Layla, the beautiful Iranian Aminpour sisters, sought refuge in the quaint Irish town of Ballinacroagh. Opening the beguiling Babylon Café, they charmed the locals with their warm hearts and delectable Persian cuisine, bringing a saffron–scented spice to the once–sleepy village.
But when a young woman with a dark secret literally washes up on Clew Bay Beach, the sisters' world is once again turned upside down. With pale skin and webbed hands, the girl is otherworldly, but her wounds tell a more earthly (and graver) story–one that sends the strict Catholic town into an uproar.
The Aminpours rally around the newcomer, but each sister must also contend with her own transformation–Marjan tests her feelings for love with a dashing writer, Bahar takes on a new spiritual commitment with the help of Father Mahoney, and Layla matures into a young woman when she and her boyfriend, Malachy, step up their hot and heavy relationship.
Filled with mouthwatering recipes and enchanting details of life in Ireland, Rosewater and Soda Bread is infused with a lyrical warmth that radiates from the Aminpour family and their big–hearted Italian landlady, Estelle, to the whole of Ballinacroagh–and the world beyond.
"delights the senses on every page. The story pulses with life as three Iranian sisters struggle to make sense of matters of the heart and the spirit"
—Elizabeth Cox, author of The Slow Moon.
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