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Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Aug 2005, 240 pages
Paperback:
Sep 2006, 256 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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This article relates to Pomegranate Soup
Marsha Mehran was
born in Iran, on the eve of the
Islamic Revolution. Amidst the
increasing chaos her parents
decided to emigrate to America -
they were luckier than most as
they had a modest nest egg and
letters of acceptance from the
University of Arizona, but they
needed visas. On November 4,
1979, her father planned to file
their visa applications with the
American Embassy, but a band of
revolutionary students bombarded
the consulate and took the
employees hostage. This
momentous turn of events, known
to all Iranians as 'The
Revolution', launched her family
into a peripatetic existence
that crossed five continents,
numerous cultures, and equipped
her with a trunk full of
adventures, both public and
personal.
With the embassy under siege,
her parents were forced to
abandon their dreams of American
academia - so they moved to
Buenos Aires and opened a Middle
Eastern café, El Pollo Loco (The
Crazy Chicken). Marsha attended
a Scottish private academy where
the Bagpipe ceremonies and
kilted school uniforms instilled
in her a lifetime love for all
things Celtic. Meanwhile, at
four years old, she was learning
three languages simultaneously
(Farsi at home, English at
school, and Spanish in the
streets).
In 1984, amid threats of
military coups and a teetering
Argentinean economy, her parents
were forced to sell their
beloved café and move to Miami,
Florida. When she was 14 her
parents divorced and she went to
live with her mother in
Australia; then at 19 she left
for New York City with $200 in
her pocket. She met her husband,
Christopher, in an Irish pub
where he worked as a bartender).
They spent the next two years in
Ireland and now divide their
time between Ireland and
Brooklyn.
I caught up with Marsha by email
a few days ago to see how things
were going on her new book and
she tells me that a sequel is in
the works, which will be larger
in scope than Pomegranate
Soup, following up on the
Aminpour sisters a year and a
half after they first arrived in
Ballinacroagh. She
describes it as "a story
of Iranian mothers and their
Iranian-American daughters. A
very female-oriented book,
filled with feminine power and
magic."
She also says that she's looking
forward to being back in New
York at the end of September to
start her national author tour,
and that she is "so looking forward to being
back on warmer soil, and to
meeting new readers." She
ends by saying, "the
paperback cover is so beautiful,
it makes me tingle with
excitement!"
This "beyond the book article" relates to Pomegranate Soup. It originally ran in August 2005 and has been updated for the
September 2006 paperback edition.
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