Crescent

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

"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