The Persia Cafe
by By Neilson, Melany
Category: Fiction , General

Growing up in a small Mississippi River town, Fannie works at the local cafe, trying to hold her own in a world of slow expectations and hard boundaries. While dreaming that her cooking will be her ticket out of Persia, she cleaves to Mattie, the irrepressible black woman who runs the kitchen; to Will, the troubled, quiet boy she falls in love with; and eventually to Sheila Jones, a reclusive young girl who has returned with her mother from California to the town after her father's death. But when a young black boy suddenly disappears and the town erupts in violence, Fannie is the only one who can piece the story together. What she uncovers is as unexpected as it is heartbreaking.The Persia Cafe examines the ordinariness of racism, and what people will do to one another in the name of loyalty. It is a story of a place where dreams are paid for in blood. But it is also about a woman who has other, perhaps even more complex business to attend to as she confronts a vastly transforming world, and the personal search she must make, the difficult question she must ultimately ask: How do you forgive those who show no regret, or even understanding?