A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea by Dina Nayeri

*what’s real isn’t always what’s true*

Just a young girl in the 1980s, Saba was left behind when her mother and twin sister Mahtab fled post-revolutionary Iran for the United States. Raised by a distracted father and the collective group of married women in their rural village, Saba’s favorite pastimes are purchasing blackmarket American goods and spinning tales of the life her mom and sister are  are living now. So focused a world so far away, how can Saba possibly find any contentment in the people and places around her? When Saba is forced into choosing between the life she knows now and the life she’s always dreamed of having, it seems clear that there won’t be any easy answers ahead.

The storytelling, and the etiquette behind the traditional village storytelling, plus all the everyday details of average Iranians in these smaller towns, created such an interesting backdrop for Saba’s story. All the additional details about what it might have felt like to live in this time and place are strong reasons to give this book a chance.