Nadine Bjursten Half a Cup of Sand and Sky

It is 1977, and the police are on their way to break up another student protest at Tehran University. Amineh escapes to a side street. She will soon have her degree in Persian literature, but unlike her peers, she does not want to fight for a say in her country's future. Her thoughts are on the beautiful literature of another era and her past of rose harvests and Sufi poetry evenings under the desert sky. Over a picnic, Amineh agrees to accompany her best friend, Ava, to an underground meeting. There she meets Farzad, an opposition leader with a plan to hold the shah accountable for his actions and to rid the world of the nuclear threat that hangs over them all. Despite her hesitation, Amineh will soon find her life inextricably linked with Farzad's. As the revolution unfolds, she will be tested by a country she doesn't recognize, by her husband's activism she fears is putting their family at risk, and by the burden of the guilt she carries from her childhood. She will turn to her mother's recipes to create a loving, nourishing home for her children, but it won't be long before her husband's dangerous work follows him home. Forced to give up everything, Amineh will learn more about the tragic accident that took her parents' lives, and ultimately, she will be given one more chance to choose love.